Clash Royale: Brothers of Friendships
by StorytellerWhoWrites
Summary: Jack and Josh are just 2 of the brothers of just a regular nuclear family in the realm of Clash Royale. When it's time for them to journey off for a little while, what surprises and adventures lay ahead of them? They are willing to take the risk!
1. Prologue

Clash Royale: Brothers of Friendships

Prologue:

Back in the day, when Kings and Queens ruled countless lands in the realm, and strive to fight in arena duels, and gain trophies and glory, there lived a special family. It was a standard, basic, nuclear family, but what they didn't know, was the adventures that would soon await them, along with a few surprises as well.

Jack, one of the family's sons, was a 14 year old, with brown hair, and skinny looking arms. He had blue eyes, and both of his arms had bracelets, each arm with one blue one and one black one. If there is one characteristic about him, you could say, he is a very infatuated person, but he does it in a strange way, and sometimes, he can be unpredictable!

Josh, another of the family's son, was also a 14 year old, with black hair, and regular looking arms. He had black eyes, and he doesn't wear bracelets, however as a boy, he always liked to become the best ninja there ever is in the realm. Unlike one of his brothers Jack, he is more on the side of friendships rather than that kind of friendship Jack is interested in. Now let us take a closer look as they will soon counter, in the realm of Clash Royale…


	2. The Surprises Begin!

Chapter 1: The Surprises Begin!

"You excited?" Jack asked his brother Josh.

"Kind of." Josh said, really nervous.

They were standing outside of the front door of their average looking house, a two story building, barely any windows, but plenty of necessities in there to keep the family alive. The sun was just setting out in the distance, greeting the morning, but rising in a steady pace.

"Now you boys just get along fine you hear me?" said their mom. "You know how anxious I am to see you growing boys journeying off into the realm at such a young age!"

"We are going to be fine." Said Jack, grinning as he turned away.

"Uh…yeah, right!" Josh said, smiling nervously.

"And you boys better be good out there." Said another man's voice as he was next to Jack and Josh's mom. He was a very tall looking man, and his whole upper body including his chest very tough looking.

"We will dad…" Jack said, with his voice trailing off into a sneaky smile.

"And remember… I'll always be proud if your accomplishments. Have a great adventure and please, remember that every adventure has a surprise." Said their dad again, with a deep and large voice.

"Thanks dad." Josh said.

"We like surprises." Jack said, grinning at what he was thinking.

Jack and Josh waved to their parents and their siblings, crowding around that door that seemed that it was about to burst because of all the pressure, but it did not thankfully. Jack and Josh walked down the path to their house, only instead, walked the opposite way, away from their house.

The family's house was in the middle of a town like village, so there were shops and bazaars and all sorts of huts all decked out across selling certain kinds of stuff.

Jack and Josh were practically familiar with almost every kind of these shops, and they even knew a few of what the shops were selling without even looking at them! Some people whom Jack and Josh recognize waved to them. They waved back.

A man with a white beard was tending his shop and selling different types of bags and sacks ranging in all sorts of colors and types. He noticed Jack and Josh and waved to them.

"Good Morning Jack and Good Morning Josh!" The man waved at them.

"Hey Maxwell! You selling anything new?" Jack asked as he and Josh walked over to his shop.

"I am selling a new bag that is called an elastic." Maxwell beamed. "That means that no matter how wide the item gets put into the bag, the bag will just stretch out instead of ripping apart!"

"Gee, that's great!" Josh chuckled. "Well, good luck with selling those bags! I'm sure a lot of people are going to buy it!"

"I'm sure they will, and what brings you out here Jack and Josh?" Maxwell asked.

"It may seem crazy to you, but we are...out on a little adventure." Jack winked at Maxwell. Maxwell nodded slowly, and winked back.

"I see. Well, take some of this gold with you just in case, and I wish you a great adventure!" Maxwell emptied out from his nearby bag of fifty pieces of gold. He gave twenty five to Jack and twenty five to Josh.

"Thanks Maxwell!" Josh smiled.

Maxwell nodded as he waved at Josh and Jack as they left. They walked around the town some more, before finally walking off into the forest, where there would be more adventure.

"What do you think your gonna do?" Jack asked Josh as they were walking, on foot.

"I don't really know yet, to be honest with you." Josh replied back sheepishly, scratching the back of his black hair. "What about you?"

"No clue." Jack replied back. "Don't worry about me." He snickered. "The possibilities of doing anything I want in the realm are infinite."

"For you, I guess so." Josh said back. "I don't know about me though."

"Why are you always acting so pessimistic?" Jack asked. "Look for all the good things that are waiting for you."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Josh demanded back.

"Treasures…gold…jewel…gi-" Jack said, but he quickly stopped after he said jewels.

"What is a gi?" Josh asked. "Don't tell me a white uniform and a belt is called a so called 'Treasure'."

"Er, never mind about what I said that time." Jack said.

"How can I stop minding what you said? I'm curious you know." Josh said.

"Just quit it okay?" Jack said, with an annoyed tone.

"Okay, okay." Josh said in a sarcastic surrendering kind of tone.

They walked more in silence for a while, passing nearby trees, that looked like they were circular in the top, and a nearby lake that wasn't really that big. It was like walking through a normal forest.

"So… you call this an adventure?" Josh said, in a quiet, low voice.

"Just be patient." Jack replied back.

"I'm patient enough." Josh said, now his turn to get a bit annoyed. He knew his brother Jack knew him better than that.

They walked some more, and they could already feel sweat beating down on their foreheads from the hot sun. They looked up towards the sun, as they kept walking, but then could also see what looked like to be a red and blue arch.

"Should we just hang out and watch an arena duel for a while?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, let's go." Jack said back.

As they headed towards the entrance of the Royal looking Arena, there were two highly armored guards looking like knights, only their helmets were the ones that covered their mouth and their eyes, but the helmet had holes in them where they can see.

"This might be a very important duel." Jack muttered. Josh followed him. "You may be right." Josh said excitedly. He and Josh and the rest of his family occasionally would go see the arena duels for entertainment. He could still remember that even when he was a baby, his family would take him to the arena duels anyways.

As they were about to enter, the guards stopped them.

"One hundred Sixty pieces of gold please." One of the knights said to them.

"Uh…sure." Jack said, and he faced Josh. "How about we split this up, you pay eighty of your gold, and I pay my eighty."

"Sure." Josh said as he reached in his pocket for the golden looking coins. He barely paid to enter the arena, but at least it was going to keep his entertainment level going. After Jack and Josh paid the guards, they nodded, and let them pass.

"Wow." Josh said as he looked around him. He could see the Blue King and the Red King with two of their daughters all mounted up on their towers, warming up for the duel.

"Let's get a good seat." Jack said as he got on the bleachers.

"Yeah, a really good seat!" Josh shrugged and followed him.

Josh and Jack found a front row seat a few seconds later as they were walking around, and there were actually six front row seats that were open.

"This is great!" Jack snickered as he sat down in the third seat. Josh took the fourth.

"Are you sure these seats are not reserved for someone?" Josh asked nervously. "The way these front row seats are open."

"Don't be so dubious Josh!" Jack exclaimed.

"Alright, alright, I might as well have a good look at the arena." Josh said.

They waited a few more minutes, and so far, not even one person took the other four front row open seats that Jack and Josh were surrounded by. The bleachers were filling up fast, and they both knew the arena duel was going to begin soon.

"You know, I guess you're right. These seats were just open." Josh thought out.

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right." Jack smirked when all of a sudden, some tough looking men wearing leather looking jackets saw Jack and Josh. All six of them glared at them from the front aisle row to the right of them, and were standing right next to the first seat.

"Those seats are for us, now scram kids." Said what looked like to be the leader of them.

Jack turned to his right and raised an eyebrow.

"Got any proof that you reserved it?" he snickered.

"We don't need to." Another of the six tough looking men said back, in a rough and tough voice.

"No evidence of reservation to these seats," Jack smirked. "Then I guess you can't prove your alibi."

This made the men angry.

"These seats are ours! You are sitting in two of those six seats that are meant for us!" another of the men said, in a furious tone.

"These are just open seats." Jack smiled. "You didn't put any stuff on the seats to reserve it, or anything, so, we won't move."

"Um Jack, maybe its okay if we just give them their seats." Josh gulped.

Jack stifled from a huge laughter. "Josh, we got these seats, they can't move us with just words."

"How dare you talk to us like that!" the leader said as he walked a bit forward and stopped. "If you don't move, we'll beat the living daylight out of you two!"

Jack raised an eyebrow again. "I just said, you can't move us with words." Josh gulped nervously. He was sure some people were watching this conflict right now.

The leader was raged. He raised his fists and breathed out heavily. "This is going to be fun." He muttered. His sidekicks smirked at them.

"You're right about that. This is going to be fun." Jack stifled again from laughter and rolled up his sleeves, revealing his black and blue bracelets. He raised his fists and snickered.

"Jack… I don't think we should fight them… I mean, look how freaking tough they are!" Josh was nearly screaming inside.

"Relax Josh, you can just sit back!" Jack smirked, when all of a sudden, the sound of trumpets came. Everyone who was standing up, except the six men immediately went back to their seat.

"Brian, let's just find a new row of seats." One of the men said. "It's no use fighting these wimps."

Jack could barely hold his laughter. Josh felt very embarrassed.

"I'll deal with them after we watch the duel." Brian, the leader said as he glanced at them angrily one last time, and went up a few more steps before finding six more open seats.

"I wouldn't count on it!" Jack laughed before facing the arena.

"I can't believe what you just did!" Josh was clearly angry at his brother.

"What? I'm just doing what it takes to keep us from receiving broken jaws and black eyes!" Jack snickered, smiling.

"You just provoked them to fight us!" Josh sighed. "And you know how terrible I am at that!"

"Who cares? It's going to happen later!" Jack laughed.

The crowd started cheering as the Blue King shouted, "Good luck!" to the Red King.

"Thanks, but I won't need it!" The Red King shouted back.

The Blue King smirked. "If you insist."

He pointed his finger towards the back left corner of the arena, and a horde of minions appeared. They all started flapping their wings towards the Red King's arena towers.

A Red Wizard spawned near the bridge and casted up a fireball, and threw it at the Minions. It blew up three minions, and the Wizard didn't think it was a problem. He casted up another one and threw it at the remaining minions.

"HOG RIDERRRR!" a man shouted, with red cuffs at his hand as he jumped over the river, with the wizard blocking him.

A robotic warrior appeared with one glowing eye, and slashed at the Wizard, making him puddles of elixir. He then ran after the Hog Rider, who was busy hitting the tower with his hammer. He raised his sword and soon, the Hog Rider disappeared.

Then a Baby Dragon and a Musketeer appeared, right next to the robotic Mini P.E.K.K.A, as they walked or flew over the bridge.

"Hmph!" The Red King shouted as he spawned a hut made out of straw and wood. A Spear Goblin appeared out of it and threw his spear at the Baby Dragon. It didn't do much harm to him. The Musketeer aimed her musketeer and shot the goblin, making him smash right into the hut.

The Blue King snickered. "What do you have to counter my troops?"

The Red King snickered back. "An army." He said as he spawned an army of skeletons. The skeletons overwhelmed the musketeer and Mini P.E.K.K.A, but the Baby Dragon scorched them away with his breath, and then spewed more fire on the Arena Tower.

The Red King spawned a pair of archers behind the Arena Tower, and the Blue King responded by spawning a big creature that was carrying a giant boulder, behind the arena tower.

"Thanks!" The Red King said as he aimed his cannon and fired a rocket at the creature and the Arena Tower. The Rocket severely hurt the Boulder, but another wizard was spawned in front of him, and he looked like his hair had been all zapped up.

"That's all you got?" The Blue King said as he waited for the Red King to make a move. The archers shot their arrows at the Electro Wizard, and the Electro Wizard zapped them back with electricity. The Electro Wizard won by a landslide, and soon, started zapping more electricity into the Arena Tower.

"GRR!" The Red King shouted as he spawned four Barbarians with swords to attack the boulder creature, known as a Bowler.

The Bowler rolled the boulder he was carrying to the barbarians, and two were flattened immediately, while two fell down and got back up. The Bowler smiled as he summoned another boulder from his hands to finish off the Barbarians.

"NO!" The Red King stomped on his tower with rage.

"It's just a duel, nothing to get raged about!" The Blue King laughed.

"Fire your arrows harder!" he shouted to one of his daughter's that was shooting at the Bowler.

"I am!" she replied back.

The Red King spawned some Fire Spirits, and then another Hog Rider to attack the Blue King's left arena tower.

"You've been messing with the wrong King who uses the Inferno Tower." The Blue King laughed as he spawned an Inferno Tower a few feet to the right of the left arena tower. The Hog Rider immediately saw it and headed straight for it.

"No, you fool! Attack the Arena Tower!" The Red King shouted. The Fire Spirits jumped and exploded on the Inferno Tower, but the Inferno Tower seemed to absorb the blow.

A few seconds later, a balloon up high showed the whole stadium that the arena duel will begin overtime in sixty seconds.

The Blue King fired back more troops powered by elixir, and the Red King fired his troops back.

"Hah. The Blue King is gonna win." Jack smirked.

"You sure about that?" Josh asked. "I mean, anything is possible in a duel you know."

"Just look at the facts." Jack replied back.

Jack was right. The Blue King had already destroyed one of the Red King's arena towers within a few seconds, and now became ambitious, as his whole horde could have potential for destroying the Red King's Tower.

"Don't mind if I spawn this on your territory!" The Blue King laughed as he spawned an Inferno Tower on the Red King's territory.

"Now that was cruel!" Josh said, with an excitement tone on his voice.

Every time the Red King spawned a troop to attack the Blue King's horde, the Inferno Tower would beam it with its fiery firepower, making it very ideal for defense of his horde. Finally, the Blue King launched a Rocket from his cannon, and it exploded against the Red King's tower, with a huge wave of smoke and fire.

"Yeah!" Jack and Josh cheered with the crowd.

The Red King stood there, holding two trophies in his hand. The Blue King stepped down from his tower and waved at the crowds, before him and one of his knights grabbed the trophies from the Red King.

"I'll have revenge on you another day!" The Red King was so angry you could see the steam coming from his ears.

"That was exciting." Josh smiled.

"Yeah, and it's gonna be even exciting when we fight off these hooligans!" Jack laughed. Josh gulped.

"Um, you are not planning on doing that right?" Josh asked nervously, waiting for the answer he dreaded Jack to respond with.

"What gave you the idea that I am planning to put this whole brawl off?" Jack snickered.

"Can we just avoid them please and get out of their sight while we can?" Josh said nervously.

"Hey wimps!" The men shouted as they walked down towards them. "I hope you're ready!"

Jack turned around towards them and laughed. "I'm ready."

"No, wait!" Josh said. "This is just a joke!"

"Shut up Josh!" Jack quietly said through clenched teeth as he elbowed him hard.

The men snickered. "I can tell this fight will be an easy one, and you, the one with the black hair and the scaredy-cat attitude? It's going to hurt, just so you know!" the leader laughed. The crowds were leaving slowly, and Josh was embarrassed. The last thing he needed was the crowd to look at them slugging it out.

"I know it's gonna hurt!" Josh gulped.

"Don't be such a coward Josh!" Jack exclaimed as he clenched his fists and smirked. The bracelets glimmering with pride on his arm as he rose up his fists.

"I told you I am terrible at this kind of stuff!" Josh said, trying to stop this.

"You don't have to fight if you don't want to." Jack said in a smooth voice.

Josh took a step backwards. "Are you sure?" he asked, but then regret what he said.

"Why, you want to help me?" Jack laughed.

"Fine." Josh crossed his arms. "Take them on."

Jack smiled at Josh with his white teeth showing as he turned around and relaxed into his stance. Josh felt better, knowing there was a chance he couldn't participate in this brawl. After all, he didn't put much thought into defending himself, he just thought other people could do it for him, and his family and siblings protected him most of the time too!


	3. Imperativeness and the Ambition

Chapter 2: Imperativeness and the Ambition

"I can tell this is going to be fun." Brian, the leader of the six hooligans snickered.

"You already said that, but its fine. I know it's gonna be fun." Jack smiled back.

"Well what are we waiting for?" another of the hooligans snickered. "Let's get right too it!"

Jack turned around and glanced at Josh for one last time before the big fight.

"Remember, I know what I am doing." Jack said quietly at him, turned around, and then clenched his teeth, but still smiling at the men.

"I hope you do." Josh muttered back.

"Okay, enough with the talking!" Brian shouted. He then made his index fingers on both of his hands point to the air, in a small circling motion, and then said, "Get them!"

"YARGH!" the men shouted as they then they split up. Three of them rushing towards Jack and Josh, and three of them going up one step on the bleachers and rushing towards them from the top.

"Let's go Josh!" Jack snickered as he quickly jumped over the bleachers and landed down on the ground and rolled. He turned around to see what his brother would do.

"Wait!" Josh said, as he looked down at the ground. It was kind of at a relatively high location for him to jump from, but if his brother could do it, then so can he himself.

Josh was about to jump too when he could feel three strong hands grab him from behind him.

"HEY!" he shouted.

"You trying to jump to escape us? No way that's going to happen, but we'll let you take the plunge instead!" one of the men snickered as they threw Josh all the way down to the neatly mowed lawn.

"OMPH!" Josh exclaimed in pain as he fell down on his back, as when the men threw Josh, they tossed him over with his upper body part, so he nearly did a front flip on the ground, but landed on his back instead.

"Ignore the pain Josh." Jack sighed happily as he helped Josh up, and then motioned the men with his right hand to come down.

"Let's go!" Brian shouted as he was the first to jump down.

"Jack, let's just out of here!" Josh said desperately, he could already nearly feel his vocal cords screaming.

"I said, I know what I am doing!" Jack said through clenched teeth as he relaxed into his stance. "I think you should know what you are doing too. We are going to get out of this together! You just have to get on your fighting side, you know what I'm saying Josh?" Jack said through clenched teeth again. Josh couldn't believe what he was hearing, but shook his head.

"Well, I'm out of here!" Josh shouted as he started to run out of the arena towards the exit that was behind the Blue King's tower.

"Go after him!" Brian commanded his men as three of them nodded. They chased after Josh.

"Now, it's time to deal with…you!" Brian walked slowly to Jack, with one man to his left, and one man to his right, just a few inches behind him. Jack looked relaxed.

"I can say the same thing to you three!" Jack smirked.

"Oh, you are really calling for a fight! Get him boys!" Brian shouted as he stepped backwards and the two men rushed towards him.

Jack crossed his lower arms and his hands together in an X shape in front of him, and when the men punched his lower part of the arms, they shouted in pain.

"OW!" both of the men shouted as they stumbled backwards to shake out the pain.

"What's the matter with you guys?!" Brian demanded. "One punch and you are already like that?"

"What matters is where they punched me." Jack smiled as he blew gently on both of his bracelets.

The men finished shaking out the pain and rushed towards Jack again, this time, more cautious that they wouldn't punch his bracelets again. That truly had bring them to a very painful sensation. Bracelets too come in handy as defense!

Jack blocked the first man's punch to the face, and then ducked straight after that when the second man tried to kick at him.

Jack then reeled backwards a bit and then punched the first man in the face, and then blocked the second man's punch to the face with his elbow. He snickered as he grabbed him behind the neck and then shoved him towards the ground, but then made his left knee cap hit his stomach.

"OOF!" the man muttered and head-butted towards Jack. Jack was startled, but kept on pushing, but his feet were sliding across the grass, making slight shoe marks on it.

Finally Jack knew this couldn't just keep on going, so he quickly clenched his hands to a bat like shape, and then whacked the second man's back as hard as he could.

"ARUGH!" The man shouted in pain as he fell down to the ground.

By then, there was a huge crowd watching the brawl from the bleachers, mostly crowding around the first row, and barely anyone daring to get down into the arena from the bleachers.

Meanwhile, the men caught up with Josh, who was barely even a few meters away from even the Blue King's Tower.

"Got you!" one of the men snickered as he grabbed Josh from behind.

"AH!" Josh shouted in surprise.

The other two men got in front of him and started taking turns punching Josh in the face and the stomach over and over again.

"Josh… don't just let them do that to you!" Jack shouted as he ducked Brian's punch and furiously grabbed both of his wrists and then kicked him in the chest with his right foot, sideways. Brian stumbled backwards and fell down.

"OOF! AUGH! OMPH!" Josh shouted in pain. "THERE IS NO ESCAPE! OUAH!" he shouted again.

"Josh, Josh, Josh." Jack sighed. "Do something already!" he exclaimed smiling.

"YAAG!" Brian shouted as he scrambled back up and lunged towards Jack. Jack was startled but wasn't going to let that knock him out. Jack started blocking some more of Brian's kicks effortless, and his face showed that he wasn't really using a lot of energy.

At one point of their one on one fight, both Jack and Brian had crossed both of their lower part of their arms, and are clenching both of their fists on each other's fists. Jack smiled.

"This can't go on you know. I wish we could have infinite time, but we don't."

Brian grew raged at this, and Jack stifled some more laughter. Brian finally managed to kick Jack on his right leg behind, and Jack stopped stifling and used both of his elbows to keep on whacking Brian in the face over and over again.

"How does it feel?" Jack started stifling again.

"HAUGH!" Brian gasped and sputtered in pain.

Finally, Jack forced Brian's whole upper body forward towards the ground, and then he charged up and uppercut, and released all of that stored up energy on him.

"AUH!" Brian exclaimed in agony as he fell backwards and lay still. Jack snickered and turned around to see Josh in severe condition.

"I thought you wanted to be the best ninja in the realm! What kind of ninja are you?" Jack bursted out laughing at Josh.

"Your right. I did want to be the best ninja in the realm." Josh gulped. The fourth man pulled his right arm backwards and started charging up a brutal punch.

"Not this time!" Josh shouted as he rose both of his legs and feet up and pushed the hooligan away from him.

"Yarg!" The hooligan shouted as he stumbled away.

Jack smirked at his brother making a bit of progress. He quickly ran over to help him, with the hooligans he fought all gasping and groaning in pain on the ground.

"HAUH!" the fifth man shouted as he lunged a punch towards Josh, when all off a sudden, he heard someone yell, and then he got tackled over.

"Huh?!" The sixth man stared at Jack punching the fifth man over and over again and snickered as he know what he let go of one of his hands and raised that hand in the air in a fist shape, ready to strike Josh.

Josh didn't forget about the sixth hooligan grabbing him, so he took a deep breath.

Then Josh quickly stretched out his arms and clenched his lips together. He turned around and ducked slightly, circled his arms and flared them crazily, and then slammed the man who grabbed him, by his right hand, which was fully opened.

"PUAH!" the hooligan shouted as he fell backwards.

Josh looked at both of his hands and was astonished in awe.

"Whoa! Did I just do that?" he said excitedly.

"You sure did! That move hit the heck out of him I'm sure!" Jack said, smiling, as he rested his left leg on top of the fifth hooligan, who was grimacing in pain.

"You saw that?!" Josh turned and looked at his brother. "That was cool right?!"

"Of course I saw that you idiot!" Jack snickered. "How else am I supposed to know how you beat the heck out of him?"

Even the crowd started cheering them on, but of course, they were still not budging on going down into the arena yet.

The fourth hooligan noticed Jack and charged towards him.

"Since we made a split on paying one hundred sixty gold for admission here, and it was eighty gold for each of us, how about we do that same? We make the split on dealing with two hooligans here, one hooligan for each of us?" Jack joked as he rolled backwards away from the fourth hooligan.

"Sure, let's split it up!" Josh smirked and copied Jack's fighting stance. The sixth hooligan rubbed his side and then glanced back at Josh angrily, and rose up his fists again, slightly open.

"Hai-Yah! Check this out!" Josh snickered as he pretended to perform a bunch of complex looking kicks, but of course, since he had barely any experience, he usually fell backwards a bit after he finished. He looked determined though. The sixth hooligan's tense face relaxed a bit, and his knees that were bent slightly got back to normal.

Jack blocked the fourth hooligan's jab to the face with his right wrist, and as the fourth hooligan yelled in pain, he punched forward, spun around a full three sixty, and whacked the fourth hooligan in the face, with the side of his right fist.

"HMPAH!" The fourth hooligan shouted in more intense agony, as he twisted around a few times violently, before crashing back down on the ground, rolling slightly in pain, trying to get back up.

"Trying to get back up? Let me help you." Jack smirked as he walked forward, but the hooligan's eyes went wide as he quickly crawled backwards and got back up.

The sixth hooligan kept on punching Josh over and over again, but Josh kept on blocking with his bracelet-free wrists over and over again too. The hooligan kept on punching all over different places, but Josh seemed to keep on blocking, but soon, the hooligan caught Josh off guard with a kick to his left ankle.

"Ow!" Josh exclaimed in pain as he quickly brought his right foot up to keep on blocking the sixth hooligan's kicks, over, and over, and over again.

Both the sixth hooligan and Josh grimaced at each other as they glanced at each other and then to both of their kicking feet. It seemed to keep going on, and Josh was starting to feel his ankles ache.

"Hu-Yai!" Josh said, as he released a wave of energy jumping back, especially with both of his feet aching.

The sixth hooligan adjusted his leather jacket collar for a split second before rushing towards Josh again.

"Think Josh!" he thought to himself and on impulse, planted both of his hands on the ground, put his left leg and foot forward, and then jumped and twisted around while he was in the air, and rammed his whole back at the hooligan, who did not expect that.

"GAH!" The hooligan shouted in surprise and pain, as he was sent in the air a few feet, and then skid across the ground for a few seconds. The crowd cheered and started applauding.

"Hey! This is fun!" Josh said, with a bit of a happy spirit in front of him.

Jack punched the fourth hooligan in the chest and then faked an elbow jab to him, raised his left elbow in the air, and then twisted around, jumped in the air, and elbowed him in the face with his right elbow instead.

Josh was getting excited as he picked up the sixth hooligan with one hand on his back, and one hand on his neck in the front. He then bended his right leg and then smashed the hooligan in the face with his right leg knee cap, making him fall backwards again, and lay still.

"Yeah!" Josh said, smiling. The crowds shouted more encouraging remarks at them, but still, of course, did not jump down onto the arena.

Jack then blocked two more weak looking punches from the fourth hooligan, and then kicked him straight between both of his legs at the way top. The fourth hooligan's mouth went sort of circular as his lips closed tightly, and he bended over slowly towards Jack, in excruciating pain. Jack calmly showed his right fist in front of the hooligan, and then uppercut him all of a sudden.

"HAUGH!" the hooligan cried in pain. Jack stifled laughter at what he just did, and was about to finish him off when he heard the sound of…

"HI-YAH!"

He turned to see Josh in the air, with his right elbow ready to strike, and his left elbow just facing towards the ground. Josh rammed his elbow in the fourth hooligan's face, knocking spit out of him. The fourth hooligan shouted in agony, as he fell backwards, slightly twisted around, and lay still with his back facing the sky, while Josh landed on the ground on his chest in pain, but he knew it was worth it, as he got back up in his stance, nearly wobbling over.

"Take that, fatboy!" Josh exclaimed excitedly, and then turned around and faced his brother Jack, while casually dusting off his elbows.

"You see? That's what I am talking about!" Jack said, grinning.

"I guess you are right. Does this make me the best ninja in the realm?" Josh smiled. "You saw all those cool moves?"

Jack stifled from laughter again.

"My brother, Josh, the best ninjas in the realm can do better than that." Jack snickered.

"Are you serious?!" Josh said, in disbelief.

"Don't worry. I know you can improve." Jack laughed as he walked away towards the exit. With the crowd cheering at them, while some, who were having a bad day, all of sudden, felt good.

"I can!" Josh said, smirking.

"But, don't be so sure it's a guarantee." Jack chortled, and smiled. Josh stared at him and followed him.

"What makes you so sure of that?!" he demanded. Jack just gleefully laughed again in response.

"Those moves you just did to the hooligans? That is not enough."

"That is cool enough moves!" Josh exclaimed.

"You know, I just don't get how you would adventure and live without me. You always argue and create excuses." Jack said, still grinning.

"Hey! Ha, Ha, very funny!" Josh muttered as he walked away from the arena with Jack.


	4. Carried Away Training

Chapter 3: Carried Away Training

Jack and Josh were a few hundred meters away from the arena, and the sky, starting to shift into the late afternoon weather.

"You know Josh; you are one of the strangest brothers I would ever have." Jack grinned at his brother while facing forward.

"What do you mean?" Josh demanded.

"The way the ambition of being a ninja perked you up. One second you were getting beat up by a bunch of these hooligans, and right after that, you changed! Like, the ambition of being a ninja made you fight like a newly trained fighter!" Jack exclaimed.

Josh grinned back, slightly embarrassed.

"Well… those hooligans did punch the heck out of me… what else was I supposed to do?" he asked back.

"Don't worry." Jack said, his face coming to a neutral expression. "It takes lots of effort if you want to achieve this long term goal of yours."

"Well you can't blame me!" Josh exclaimed back.

"I can blame you." Jack said, smiling. "You seem to put off this ninja goal of yours way too much."

"Everyone forgets once in a while." Josh sighed, his voice getting hoarse. "Besides, about this ninja goal. Your words are making it sound like it's a long-term goal!" Josh finished.

"Like I said, face the facts!" Jack snickered back. "You really think you can be a Ninja Master really fast?"

"It may take a bit of effort, but it won't take a long time!" Josh exclaimed back, defending what he believed in.

Jack just sighed back in reply, still smiling though. "Don't just let that stop you! Your skills will improve, if you put effort in it." He nodded.

"I am!" Josh exclaimed back.

"Maybe, you are not trying hard enough?" Jack asked.

"What…?" Josh said, completely shocked. He WAS trying his hardest during the fight at the arena with the hooligans, and he was sure he landed a lot of powerful and very painful hits to them!

"Yeah! I know you Josh. You can do better than those lame moves you just unleashed at the hooligans." Jack grinned again.

"What do you mean, 'Lame Moves'?" Josh demanded back, very annoyed at Jack.

"Seriously? Launching yourself and ramming your back against a hooligan? What kind of move is that?" Jack laughed. Josh grew a bit furious.

"Oh shut up! That's just my kind of freestyle moves!" Josh said, closing his eyes when he said that and crossing his arms.

"Like I said. You are one of the strangest brothers I would ever have." Jack briefly continued to laugh before finally stopping. "That's your freestyle? Hah! Your mind is so weird."

"Your fighting moves are weirder than mine!" Josh retorted back, with a fierce, sharp tone in his voice.

"Oh yeah?" Jack smiled. "What move did I do that was weird?"

"Well… you're…um…." Josh stammered, trying to remember all of Jack's moves he had seen him unleash in last fight's against the six tough hooligans.

Jack stifled laughter. "Go on." He said, in a smooth voice.

Josh then noticed that there were punch marks all around Jack's bracelets. "You might have used those bracelets as your style of 'fighting'." Josh said, relieved he found a great explanation to counter his brother's teasing and annoying taunts.

"I did, as a matter of fact." Jack's eyebrows raised a bit. "That just comes to show how stupid those hooligans are."

"What do you mean 'stupid'?" Josh asked.

"What do I mean, 'stupid'?" Jack chortled. "Two of Brian's hooligans were dumb enough to punch them!" he nearly shouted at his brother Josh. "Common Sense!"

Josh then realized why it was common sense. After all, there were punch marks near Jack's bracelets, which indicate that someone has made those marks, definitely not Jack of course.

"Why do you even wear those black and blue bracelets anyways?" Josh asked. "Those bracelets look so weird when you where it."

"I've always been wearing it." Jack replied back. "I got my reasons."

"Like what?" Josh asked.

Jack chuckled briefly. His brother sure acted strange and weird and annoyingly curious at some times.

"Our cousin Jack has his reasons for his bracelets." Jack snickered. "And I have mine, and it's none of your business." He snickered again.

"Why do you always admire our cousin Jack?" Josh asked. "He's so cruel do you know that?!"

"Like I said, he always has his reasons." Jack muttered back.

"Well, that doesn't mean you should copy him like he is!" Josh sighed.

"Why, what's wrong with copying people?" Jack asked.

"Nothing bad, but… just, well, why can't you be your own self?" Josh suggested, hoping his brother Jack would take his advice, but he knew what his answer was going to be.

"I don't have time for that." Jack replied back, before walking a bit faster.

Josh noticed that and picked up his pace.

"Say… where do you think we are even going?" Josh asked.

"Common sense Josh." Jack smirked. "This is supposed to be an adventure in the realm. We shouldn't know where we go!"

"Oh, right." Josh said, very embarrassed at himself.

Jack and Josh walked on in silence for some more, and they could already see the sun changing a bit of color from bright yellow, to just the normal yellow.

"It does gonna be afternoon soon." Jack said, while looking at the sun, with his right hand in the salute stance over his forehead.

"What do you suggest we do?" Josh asked, smiling. What can his brother Josh even do?

"I suggest we find something to do before dusk, and then we will find a place to stay for the night." Jack said, effortlessly, without taking barely any time to think. Josh griped back in reply.

"I don't get it. Why do you know so much about this realm?" Josh griped.

"It's just common sense." Jack laughed. "Things look so complicated to you, but if you just put effort into thinking about this world, and it's revolving cycle of life, you will see." He smiled back.

"Hmph!" Josh muttered angrily, crossing his arms together again, while walking.

A few minutes later, Josh and Jack came upon a lake that was surrounded by a bunch of small plateaus and some trees and lilypads scattered throughout all of the edges around it. There was also a small island near the middle of the lake, that had land connecting to it in a very small bridge like shape.

"Here we go! Here's something we can do!" Josh exclaimed excitedly.

"Like what?" Jack chortled back. Josh then gulped.

"Um… we could…" he was completely blank out of his mind.

"Look Josh. You are terrible at swimming, so why don't we just continue on?" Jack suggested, smirking.

Josh grew a bit furious at Jack's reply.

"Well we can't just walk on and leave this place!" Josh sighed. "We have to do something with it!"

"Ah… I see." Jack nodded. "You see that small island right near the middle of the lake and a small grassy bridge connected to it? Let's go to the island and I will tell you what we can do."

With that, Josh could feel himself smile.

"You really mean it?" Josh asked, astonished at what Jack said. Jack was usually the one making all of the choices, but he seemed cool with this choice.

After Josh and Jack crossed the small grassy bridge towards the island, Josh turned around near the edge of the island and looked at his brother. "So, what are we gonna do?" he asked.

"Head's up!" Jack exclaimed, stifling a laughter as he punched towards Josh's face.

"AH!" Josh exclaimed, frightened a bit, but managed to block the punch and duck. Jack stepped backwards chuckling a bit. Josh could feel himself get a bit angry.

"What was the meaning of that?!" he demanded Jack.

"Don't you see? I'm trying to test out your-" Jack said, as he front-kicked towards Josh. Josh quickly grabbed Jack's foot and pushed it forwards. Jack stumbled backwards but didn't fall down.

"Test out what?" Josh asked.

"Test out your reactions!" Jack exclaimed, with his white teeth still showing out of his smile. Jack then punched two times towards Josh, and Josh quickly blocked the first one, with his fist, and then swiftly moved to the right, grabbed Jack's other fist, and then forced him to move forwards. Jack tripped over Josh's right leg that he stuck out, and he rolled forwards and stopped near the very edge of the island.

"Good one, but ninjas react faster than that!" Jack commented. He was beginning to like his very own decision that his brother Josh came up with.

"I think my reactions are fast enough!" Josh boasted back, and stepped backwards; bended his knees a little bit, and held up his fists in front of him.

"You got to be able to block this!" Jack shouted as he punched towards Josh.

"Hau, Ha!" Josh shouted as he swung up his right fist and blocked the first punch, and then quickly, when Jack punched downwards, Josh used the same fist, and swung it down to block it.

Jack then smirked and spun around to the right and used the side of his right fist to hit Josh in the face. Josh ducked and then kicked forward, aiming the direction to the left. Jack blocked it, and then ducked again when Josh spun around to the left and kick him in the process, and then reached out his hand and striked Josh in the chest.

"Augh!" Josh muttered in pain, as he quickly jumped backwards into his freestyle looking fighting stance.

Josh punched Jack to the face on the right, and then on the left. Jack quickly blocked both of those, and then hook punched forward. Josh ducked under and head-butted Jack. Jack quickly whacked Josh in the neck while they were on the ground and rolled away.

"Huh!" Josh exclaimed as he swung his right fist up to hit Jack, and Jack quickly blocked it with his foot, spun around to the right, and then got his leg half-way from the ground and shoved it down towards his brother.

"Ha!" Josh exclaimed, as he rolled away and then quickly yanked Jack's feet. Jack was taken by surprise and fell backwards. He got up and stifled some smiling.

Jack got back up and held up his fists again.

"Good enough for starters." He snickered.

"I am not a starter!" Josh exclaimed angrily.

"At least, I think you are." Jack smirked, as he punched forward towards Josh's face again.

Josh ducked it, but blocked the punch with his hands anyways. He then stepped forward, slightly galloping, and slammed his right foot up towards Jack. Jack ducked, spun around, and while he was spinning around, made his hands shaped like a baseball bat that was swinging around.

"WHOA!" Josh shouted in surprise, and unfortunately, did not have enough time to dodge it in any sort of way. When Jack's double fists hit him, he spun around to the left, his whole body spiraling towards the ground. "OMPH!" he muttered in pain.

Jack stepped backwards and relaxed a bit.

"Don't become so sensitive Josh!" Jack said, stretching his shoulders for a few seconds and then smiled.

"I'm not sensitive! It just hurts!" Josh exclaimed back, and got back up, slowly because of all that pain.

Jack sighed and relaxed his fists. Sometimes, his brother acted so strange.

"The proper way to absorb these kinds of hits is to quit talking!" Jack explained, punching towards Josh's stomach.

"Wait!" Josh gulped, but it was too late. Jack's fist was already surging towards him, with lots of energy and power increasing the pain the receiver would get. Josh held both of his open hands in front of him, but the punch was so strong, that it knocked him back!

"OOF!" Josh exclaimed again in pain, and his shoes were skidding across the grass, but they weren't making him fall.

"Want to try some of this?" Jack smirked as he then landed a big wave of flurry punches towards Josh. Josh was ducking, and blocking, and even punching some of his brother's punches back! After what seemed like an hour of all of that, when it was only just a few long seconds, he stumbled back, panting, and shaking out the intense pain from his knuckles. Amazingly, they weren't bleeding though.

"Can we stop now?" Josh asked, breathing out and having an exasperate tone in his voice.

"One word, Perseverance." Jack snickered as he raised up his fists too. He had been shaking out some of the pain too from his knuckles.

"Come on Jack, you know me!" Josh sighed and sarcastically whined.

"I know you. You want to be a ninja? Persevere!" Jack said, smiling, as he ran towards his brother, ready to punch him again. Josh gulped and all of a sudden, turned around to run, but he got tackled down by his brother.

"Fight back Josh!" Jack encouraged him, while he tussled around with him, and then all of a sudden, they both rolled into the water.

Josh was screaming inside. He knew he couldn't swim that good, and let alone, barely float! But his brother Jack knew more about swimming then him. He was not an expert, but he could master the basics. Jack rose both of him and Josh up to the surface, and then started whacking Josh in the face with his elbow, purposely, not at full force.

"OW!" Josh shouted, after he gulped in a big supply of air for his lungs, and then disappeared under the water. Jack kept on whacking his face with his elbow a few more times, before finally, bringing Josh back up to the grass island. Josh collapsed down, and kept on panting, and coughing out water.

"So how did you like that training?" Jack said, smiling, as he sat by him, hitting Josh's back to make him cough out an extra water. It took a few seconds before Josh finally felt back to normal.

"What the heck were you thinking?!" Josh nearly exploded at Jack. "Punching me to the point where I nearly bled, nearly drowning me, and whacking my face, all at once?!"

Jack frowned at Josh's reply. He did not like what his brother was saying.

"That was real training Josh. Accept the fact that these trainings daily will help you accomplish your goal of… being that realm's best ninja." Jack smiled again, holding in a bit of a chuckle.

Josh shook his head violently, making a bunch of water droplets fly out of his black, spiky looking hair, thanks to the effect of the lake's water.

"This may be good once in a while, but I don't think training that can be so intense, and painful, be right for me!" Josh sighed.

Jack went back to a straight face. "I guess I got carried away." He chuckled nervously.

"You just showed a prime example of that!" Josh exclaimed angrily, and walked away. Jack felt a bit sorry, and followed Josh to catch up.

"Where are you going?" Jack asked.

"I'm finding a place to stay for the night." Josh muttered, looking up at the sky. He didn't even know it was nearly getting sunset.

"Are you sure? It's still bright in the sky!" Jack said, very confused.

"Don't worry, we will find a place to stay." Josh said, very determined. Jack smirked back at Josh's style of tone when he said that sentence. At least, he can improve his speech without getting seriously injured.

"Might as well! It might take us a long time to find a place to stay!" Jack smiled and followed Josh. Josh felt himself relax. He was glad that his anger cooled off fast. He didn't know if that would apply in the future, but at least it happened right now.

 **DMCsupergamer: Hello FanFiction readers, hope you are enjoying the chapters so far, and the chapters that are ever closer to start coming up! I must now take the time to inform you that I have started a thread for a new card called the "Dodgeballer". This cool card can be known for throwing dodgeballs that look like coconuts, and they can bounce up to 5 close targets! While spinning, he will dodge and can't be touched, just like the bandit, and it would take about a second or so to charge. If you would like to see more information about this new card I am suggesting to Clash Royale, you can go to the Clash Royale forums and check out my new idea for this card! Lots of cool features are waiting to be read, so** **Once again, enjoy the upcoming chapters, and I hope you will take part, and enjoy in supporting this new card idea!**


	5. Departing Separate Ways?

Chapter 4: Departing Separate Ways?

It was now looking more like sunset in the horizon, and Jack and Josh walked for a hefty long more minutes. They knew it was more of a sunset in the horizon because they were finally out of the forest, that had many good rest spots and… well… training areas, like that lake with plateaus surrounding it. Jack and Josh were both standing on a large flat boulder that was extending upwards in a slight slope from the ground, but it still had other stones supporting it.

"Nice sunset, don't you think?" Josh asked, looking at the awesomely glow that the sun in the horizon gave.

"It sure is a nice sunset." Jack agreed.

Josh and Jack stared at the sunset some more, and finally broke away from it and started to continue walking. Josh decided to start another conversation, just to make the walk more something of a resource.

"I just don't get it Jack! You think you don't have time to be yourself?! It's actually really easy if you come to think of it, and might be simple than you think!" Josh started, and sighed a bit, just to make the conversation have a bit of feeling.

"Oh? I'd say our cousin Jack has some qualities that are really similar to me, you know!" Jack replied back.

"Are you saying that you are cruel like him too?" Josh groaned a bit.

"Nope. But if anyone gets past my boundaries," Jack snickered cockily, dusting off imaginary dust from both of his bracelets. "I can show them some of my mad skills."

"I know." Josh sighed. I trained hard just like you, but you seemed to be getting better than me!" he groaned again. "And I am focused to being a ninja, and you aren't focused to that!"

"Well," Jack chuckled a bit. "I've got other plans."

"Plans like what?" Josh asked curiously.

"Josh, you have to understand that some people have their own personal preferences that are so private, that not even any of their spouses can hear it!" Jack exclaimed, with an annoyed tone in his voice.

Josh didn't like his brother's answer. He grumbled in reply.

"Why are you always so overprotective of your thoughts?" he asked.

"I'm not being overprotective. I just know what thoughts I should protect, and what thoughts I can be safe to tell!" Jack laughed at Josh's question.

"Hmph! You don't look like you are doing that!" Josh exclaimed back and crossed his arms again briefly this time.

"You can't read my mind, so I guess you can't be so sure of that!" Jack laughed again, his white teeth still gleaming with pride.

"I can be sure enough. You are my brother, and that is enough for me!" Josh replied back, in a bit of frustration in his voice tone.

"That… is not… enough." Jack chortled and smiled.

Josh just sighed back.

"Come on Jack!" he faked whimpering. "I'm born with curiosity! It's probably in my genes the whole time!"

"Be careful Josh." Jack said, pointing his right index finger at Josh's face. "Remember the saying?"

"What saying?" Josh asked, completely confused now. Was there really a saying to the word curiosity?

"Curiosity kills the cat." Jack smiled and walked on.

"I'm not a cat!" Josh said, very embarrassed. But he could see why he was a cat. After all, he wanted to be a ninja, and to be a ninja, your movement has to be nice and light. Like when a cat climbs up a tree, a ninja should do the same thing, even if he or she weighs more.

"It's just a figure of speech Josh." Jack sighed, but was still smiling as always. "You don't seem to grasp the hang of those sentences do you?"

"I know it's a figure of speech, but don't you know that moment where you just get to angry to think of common sense and logic?" Josh fired back.

"I can see why you might think of that." Jack muttered back.

Josh smirked, knowing he won this part of the conversation this time.

They kept on walking a few more minutes, and it seemed for hours, but Jack's legs seemed fine, and he was persisting through the tiredness and pain. Josh on the other hand, was a different story.

"Jack, can we please take a rest at walking?" Josh groaned. "My legs are aching!"

"It's worth the walk." Jack smirked. "Besides, wherever we rest will heal our legs. Wouldn't you like a nice comfy bed instead of the rough outside grass?"

"Oh, fine!" Josh grumbled. "You win this time." He was actually kind of angry. One moment he was on fire and winning and the next moment he fell flat on his face. On an argument of course.

"Hah, I mostly and usually would win." Jack replied back.

"Mostly." Josh grumbled.

Jack laughed briefly before continuing on. It has been another long few minutes before they finally walked up a huge hill and could see a great view. Full of trees, rivers, and a huge stadium looming in the distance.

"Can we find another place to stay for a while before we find where we should sleep for the night?" Josh groaned once he saw only the stadium, but nothing else that offered bunking or sleeping.

Jack held up his right hand against his forehead in the adventurer style.

"You see that stadium over there?" Jack said to Josh, while pointed at the same stadium that was looming up in the distance near the darkened horizon. "We can go there then."

"Aw, great!" Josh sighed and breathed out a sigh of relief, and there was actually something in his tone that made it sound like he was really glad. After all of that tens, maybe twenties, or even thirties of minutes of walking. Finally he could rest up those aching and screaming legs of his.

A few minutes more of walking to the stadium, Josh and Jack could not see any guards guarding, but it looked still cool enough if they attended it. There was however, a goblin there wearing a referee uniform and had a whistle with a lanyard around his neck. He was obviously there to collect gold.

"Hey Goblin!" Jack called as he and Josh walked even closer to the entrance of the stadium. "How much does cost to enter?"

"You got two hundred fifty gold with you?" The goblin replied as he held out his hand, waiting for payment.

"Yeah…sure." Josh wasn't really sure why admission to this stadium was lavish amount of gold, but as long as it could help his aching legs rest a bit, he was fine.

After Josh and Jack handed the goblin one hundred twenty five gold each, they could see a huge looking football field with small trapdoors on each end of the stadium that looked like it was made for spitting out confetti.

Josh and Jack looked around them to examine their surroundings, as they started finding some seats to watch the game. Josh however, was nervous again, as the empty seats all over the place reminded him of Brian and his gang. They were probably early there though, as there were barely any people around the bleachers, and the only people down in the football field was a man with a mustache wearing a brown cap and driving some kind of operative lawn mower across the field. Perhaps he was smoothing out the landscape?

"What do you know? We get to have a front row view of everything!" Jack exclaimed as he walked to the opposite side of the stadium, where you could see the whole football field extending outwards from you.

"You sure that's a good place to watch the game?" Josh asked, very confused. As Jack and he went over to the first row of bleachers, it seemed to Josh like he was watching the game from a player's first person point of view.

"I'm almost positive. Relax! Just be glad I'm helping you before I go my separate ways!" Jack stifled a laugh as he sat down in the direct middle of the first row, with his elbows stretched out like a pillow behind his head as he started to relax.

"Your…separate ways?" Josh asked, in utter alarm.

"Yeah! You know, we are supposed to learn something from out adventure Josh. If I want the best learning experience, it's by leaning against my own decisions and experiencing things by myself! I mean like, I might meet friends or something like that, but I have to adventure off by myself!" Jack was having a difficult time trying to explain everything to Josh, but Josh seemed to know what he was talking about.

"I thought you were making all of the decisions here Jack!" Josh tried convincing him to help him for a little while, but at the same time, he kind of felt annoyed and embarrassed at himself. He is fourteen years old and he still acts like he is a dependent person!

"Not all, but most of them." Jack replied back, but something in his face showed that he wasn't even satisfied enough. "I have to make all the decisions." Jack finished. Josh stared at him in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Josh asked, hoping he answer would be no.

"Yeah, I'm serious all right." Jack replied back. "Don't worry. I know you can be on your own." Jack smirked, waiting for Josh's reply.

"No way! I ca-" Josh began but stopped. He thought for a few seconds and sighed. "I mean…can I?" he asked.

"Yeah." Jack replied back. Don't worry about everything Josh!" Jack clearly seemed to be taking things relatively easy. "Now let's just watch the game for the night. That's the only thing that should be in both of our mind's now." With that, he finished briefly before sitting back and looking more relaxed on the bleachers.

"Yeah, that should." Josh said, sarcastically back as he sat down next to Jack.

Josh was seriously having more stress getting built up in his brain. He is fourteen years old, and he still has many more years to come in his life. He wasn't even sure if he was going to live for even a couple of days without Jack. Jack was like a guide to him, the way he thought about it. But he was thinking that if questions are the way to help his brother Jack changes his mind, he was willing to take the chance.

"Jack, what makes you so sure that I can survive on my own?" Josh asked, his first question ringing a bell in Jack's mind.

"Josh. Let me put it to you this way. You are capable of doing really cool feats and stuff and all of that. You just don't know how to use those skills." Jack said in response. That hit Josh like a ton of bricks.

"…What?" Josh felt astonished, but felt at the same time that his brother Jack was lying to him, just to make him feel good about journeying off on his own for a while.

"Yeah. Let me tell you something Josh. Just learn how to believe in yourself! That includes removing that pessimistic attitude of yours." Jack continued, but knew that Josh could figure general things out by himself.

"I'm not pessimistic! I'm just telling you about the facts I know about myself!" Josh retorted back.

"Well…maybe you don't know your full potential about yourself." Jack replied back.

"And how do you expect me to know my full potential about myself?" Josh demanded.

"Okay, now Josh, that's the part where you are on your own! You know your full potential by finding it out yourself by doing something adventurous." Jack seemed to always have an answer for Josh's questions!

"Am I not doing that right now?" Josh demanded.

"You have to branch out Josh!" Jack exclaimed. "The way I mean by that, you have to explore differently! This isn't just your average adventure you know!" Jack finished. It was almost like he was giving a short oral speech to Josh, and Josh was one of the audience spectators who were asking questions.

"I guess you're right." Josh sighed as he tried to sit back too and relax, but he didn't feel as good as his brother Jack. A few minutes later, they could clearly see more spectators enter the stadium through the doors. There were there men who had yellow mustaches and blonde, but yellow looking hair, there were women wearing green cloaks and their hair looking pink, and giant looking men who wore leather tunics and have an orange, brown looking beard.

"Listen Josh, just enjoy the game, we'll deal with this departing and going our separate ways later." Jack assured Josh.

"Yeah, fine." Josh crossed his arms together in response.

After a few more minutes of everyone finding their seats, the same referee goblin from the front of the stadium appeared out of thin air! Josh flinched at that bit, but shook that thought out of his mind. He still had some stress build up, but his brother Jack told him to just enjoy the game right now while it lasted.

Josh sighed silently but was ready to watch and enjoy the game, trying his best to put this departing separate ways thought to the back of his mind.


	6. Most Valuable Player

Chapter 5: Most Valuable Player

TWEET! The Referee Goblin jumped in the air, and blew his whistle, and ran off out of sight through the arena doors. The duel was now beginning! Josh was thinking about many other things in his mind right now, but he thought about maybe just enjoying the duel right now.

The first person he saw spawn right out of thin air near the back left of the arena was another Man on a Hog.

"HOG RIDER!" The man shouted, as he got his hammer ready, and held it in front of him in a defensive position as he started charging across the field on his hog towards the opponent's end zone, which was where Josh and Jack were watching from, at the bleachers.

It seemed like no one was spawning the troops however, but there were four Kings on the opposite sidelines watching them, two of them wearing blue cloaks and the other two wearing red cloaks. They were making sure they were doing correctly their battle plan.

"Bowlee!" A big purple creature spawned right in front of the Hog Rider. The Hog Rider whacked the creature with his hammer before continuing on. It was part of the Red King's plan. Who wants to be bowled over without defending yourself anyways? Surely it's just common sense isn't it?

"Haugh!" The Bowler shouted as he rolled a boulder towards the Hog Rider.

The Hog Rider squinted at the Bowler before hurrying his Hog on. The Bowler's fearsome looking boulders colliding onto the Hog Rider, but the Hog Rider persisted on in response.

"Go, Go!" The Hog Rider shouted at his Hog. The Bowler seemed to have really good aim though, the boulder shaped like a bowling ball, rolling towards the Hog Rider and his Hog at a steady speed.

"Augh!" The Bowler held up another boulder with his right hand, moved forward, and bowled it again towards the Hog Rider.

At once, a horde of blue flying creatures appeared, flapping their wings, and wear wearing red bracelets, or cuffs, showing that they belonged to the Red Team. Those blue flying creatures were also in a group of six. Since they were on the opposite side from Jack and Josh, so they were clawing at the Bowler right in front of them. The Bowler immediately started escaping and trying to run away, but not before he managed to knock off the Hog Rider off his Hog with one of his boulders.

A purple coiffed hair woman wielding a musket was spawned behind the creature horde, and two barbarians carrying a big log were also spawned behind her. In response, there was a Wizard wearing a blue robe and electricity like structure that was also spawned, just a few feet from in front of the Minion Horde.

ZAP!

BZAP!

ZIWAP!

Mini thunderbolts and electric shocks sparked the electrocuted the Minion Horde with ease, but the electricity like structure only was targeting one at a time, so it would be only a matter of seconds before the horde would eventually claw it and scratch it to pieces.

"Jack. If you were one of those kings there that were probably doing his coaching and commanding job to order his troops around the arena, would you devise some kind of strategy?" Josh asked his brother as the Wizard's fireball smelted the minions into purple liquid.

"I'm sure I would already have planned way before, in advance." Jack cockily replied back.

"What do you mean?" Josh asked.

"Being a king takes a lot of responsibility, more than the average person can handle!" Jack explained. "I figured that if you want to get everything done, and your responsibilities taken care of, you are going to need to plan in advance!"

"Seems logical to me, but where…and when do you expect to start planning in advance?" Josh raised an eyebrow and smirked. By now the battle ram was completely obliterated, and there were the two barbarians in its place, but they seemed to have the same raged feeling as they had while they were carrying the big looking ram.

Jack glanced at the middle of the arena duel's main attention of fight, and then relaxed a bit more on his seat.

"Oh…well, you can immediately pick out the places where you have time alone." Jack started, and then smirked for a split second as he looked at Josh for a split second before turning away.

"Time alone…from me?" Josh playfully punched his brother on the arm. "Haha, very funny."

"Just talking about the basic places of everyday life." Jack replied back, smiling a bit, as he rubbed his arm that didn't even feel any pain to him.

"So…what are the places of everyday life?" Josh asked.

"Like in your bedroom." Jack relaxed back even more. "Unless we don't have separate rooms, and have to share one darn room, I can think and plan ahead of to myself as I doze off to sleep. It's a great strategy and tactic I use to go to sleep actually."

"You really think so?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, sure!" Jack nodded back. "Your mind starts thinking about the future when you plan ahead, and the thought of the future is like a dose of dizziness and absorption of destiny in your brain. Or something like that." Jack finished, before leaning forward a bit and rested both of his wrists near both of his knee caps.

"Well, I'm sorry to say, but I don't do that." Josh was very confused but also astounded to Jack's technique and way of going to sleep faster.

Josh always used his own technique mostly on every day he slept, like using his technique where you would close your eyes and count anything, like sheep, ships, stuff like that. It wouldn't work well for him, but it at least gave him a decent amount of hours he slept.

In fact, on some days, Josh would wake up in the middle of the night, feeling comfortably and perfectly normal. He'd sigh and try to go back to sleep again, only to wait about an hour or so before dozing off.

By now, the duel looked like it was shifting into the real thing now. There were gangs of green goblin creatures, lighting bolts zapping troops all over the place, particularly when there were up to three troops that were close to each other in combat. There was also Wizards that had ice shards shooting straight out of their hands with the power of Ice, and there was sometimes digging underground the field, but a man wearing a miner's hat would dig right out of the ground to continue his battle.

"Why dig all the way to just half of the field," Josh thought to himself. "When you can just dig all the way to the end?" Josh was very confused. In the world of Clash Royale dueling, some weird and strange things happen in the arena. Maybe for the rule where a Miner can only dig up to halfway towards their team's endzone, if that rule was gone, a Miner would be probably considered the Most Valuable Player of the team!

"How are you enjoying the game so far Josh?" Jack asked, not looking at his brother, but looked like he was focusing, slightly squinting at the troops battling it out near the middle of each team's endzone, the clashes and sounds of swords, fireballs, and electricity. Josh turned to Jack so he could answer, and he was caught off guard by Jack's attention and focus on the arena. He looked like he was using telekinesis on the troops, but luckily, he wasn't.

"I mean its fine. I'm sure I will have a great time like always." Josh lied and half lied about that one, with a mixed tone of sarcasm in his voice. He wanted to have a great time, but he also wondered if this would be like any other arena duel that they had seen before.

"I'm sure you would." Jack nodded, before leaping up from his seat like almost everyone else and he pumped his fists towards the sky. "YEAH! Push yourself forward!"

The Blue Team seemed to have more troops overwhelm the Red Team, and the Red Team's coaches, more of looking like normal Kings, clenched up their fists and growled at the Blue Team's troops in rage, and Josh even swore he just saw a bit of steam coming out of their enraged hair.

The two Blue Kings jumped up in the air and pointed towards a large group of their team, which consisted of a Prince, two goblins carrying spears, an Ice Wizard, and what looked like to be another Goblin only instead he was wearing a mask and was holding a small stick in front of his mouth where it looked like he would spit out something towards his target. Looked like he could cover a large range of tiles!

"This!" The first Blue King exclaimed.

"And this too!" The second Blue King exclaimed as at once, a Clone Spell and a Rage Spell appeared straight in the air, and landed straight on top of the huge horde. In seconds, they duplicated, their clones looking a more turquoise color of them, and they seemed like they were ready to fight anything!

"Whoah!" Josh was surprised. "What could the Red Kings over there possibly do now?"

"I am sure they have no clue." Jack agreed. "But remember that neither team has won any touchdowns yet. It's still anyone's game."

"I know that Jack." Josh sighed, but grinned. "You don't have to think that I need a brief summary or description of every single thing I ask."

"Well, hey! Every question needs an answer!" Jack laughed briefly in response. Josh smiled too, but a few seconds later, that thought still was around in his mind, bouncing around, seeming to not escape. It seemed like something to Josh that couldn't be true.

"A question, always needs an answer?" Josh tried to believe that was true, but he thought to himself a bit. Was that really true?

It had only been a matter of time before the Blue Team's troops crossed the endzone line, and they all cheered with a triumph in their voices. The trapdoors at the four corners of the stadium opened, and confetti bursted out. Almost the whole entire stadium including Josh and Jack applauded and cheered the Blue Team. The Blue Team's troops casually waved at their crowd as they hurried back to the center of the endzone.

"You haven't used all of everyone on your team right?" the second Blue King asked the first Blue King.

"Yep! I have, not at all used everyone on my team yet. I actually saved her, because she is well…" The Blue King's eyebrows rose a bit. "My Most Valuable player."

"Most Valuable Player hm?" The second Blue King replied back.

"That's right! Her name is Juno, and currently, she does seem to grow and show tremendous effort at such a young age!" The first Blue King nodded, as the trapdoors shooting confetti starting closing back and resetting, and the troops gathering back onto the sidelines.

"Oh really?" The second Blue King asked the first Blue King.

"Yes, really! She is only fourteen years old!" The First Blue King replied back.

"Fourteen?!" The second Blue King exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yep. I learned when I was a youth that you cannot let age limit you to do things that you can't. Anyone can accomplish anything at young ages even if they fail." The first Blue King explained.

"And you said she was your Most Valuable Player? That's incredible…" the second King's voice trailed off before the same referee Goblin appeared out of thin air in the middle of the field. He raised his whistle towards his mouth and blew on it again, as he jumped.

TWEET!

"Let's aim for another touchdown." The second Blue King muttered as he walked over to the center of the field on the sidelines.

"We should show no mercy, and give it our best?! You hear me!" The two Red Kings shouted at their troops who were grumbling angrily about their loss.

At once, a big rocky troop with blue crystals on its back was spawned out of thin air in the back right corner of the stadium, just a bit to the front right of where Jack and Josh were sitting.

It rumbled the ground with a big noise, nearly shaking the entire stadium from its foundation, but luckily, it wasn't that heavy enough.

"Go!" The second Red King shouted angrily as pointed his finger towards the field, and at once, a robotic figure spawned in the air, looking like another Mini P.E.K.K.A.

"PAN-CAKES!" The Mini P.E.K.K.A screeched out as he charged towards the big rocky Golem like creature, slashing at its hard looking rocks. The Golem looked like it didn't even notice it, and walked on like the robotic warrior was nothing.

"Goblin Barrel!" The first Red King shouted as he launched a barrel in the air, with constant snickering in that small barrel that could be heard from the outside.

"Dart Goblins…fire!" Both the Blue Kings shouted.

The first Blue King had already spawned a Dart Goblin a few seconds ago right after the Golem had been released, and he threw a mirror looking spell at him. The second Blue King used a turquoise spell to clone the two Dart Goblins.

The sound of darts blew with force of expertise from the Dart Goblins wearing masks, and the darts flew at lightning speed towards the barrel. The darts didn't seem to make any progress in penetrating the barrel, but the darts were hard enough to stick onto the wood.

"Wizard!" The first Red King shouted.

"Barbarians!" the second Red King shouted.

About five units, one of them wearing another blue cloak, were moving towards the Golem with moderate speed. The one in the blue cloak seemed relaxed, but the other four barbarians looked like they were ready to rip some rocks and stones out, with their mean looking faces indicating that. Josh flinched back a few centimeters, but then sighed, rolling his eyes and leaning forward to watch the rest of the duel.

"Time to let my Most Valuable Player, or should I say, Players…!" The second Blue King beamed, as he pointed his finger all the way at the back, near the end-zone.

With that, two big muscled and tougher looking barbarians slammed the ground hard, using their feet muscles for maximum intimidation. They glared at the ground before slowly glaring up towards the commotion near the center of the field.

They were wearing blue football helmets, which seemed to shine with all the lights lighting up the whole entire field. The Golem took just a few more shots from a cannonball, a fireball, and some sword slashes before exploding violently, splitting into two more small versions of it.

"YAAUGH!" The two barbarians shouted as they charged towards the commotion in the middle, running faster than their lower-ranked companions. Their swords seemed sharper and shinier, and their mean looking faces were covered just a bit by the shadows of their helmets, but they didn't care. All they could think about was winning for their team and splattering elixir all over the place.

Josh's attention was now focused towards the Elite Barbarians. They were the main source of attention now, to most of everyone, but it definitely caught both Jack and Josh's attention.

"Flying Machine!" The first red King shouted.

"Let's take them off with Bats!" The second Red King shouted, as they both pointed their fingers towards the center of the field.

A big cylinder looking flying drone appeared. It wasn't exactly a drone, but it looked definitely like a barrel with lots of wood attached around it, pointed upwards, and a propeller attached to it. There was also what looked like to be legs pedaling the machine at the bottom.

"Is that pedaling like thing supposed to operate the propeller Jack?" Josh asked, awed when he saw that for the first time.

"Of course it is Josh! How else do you think he is pedaling that thing for?!" Jack laughed. Sometimes his brother can get so dumb and not work out common logic correctly!

"Maybe to use that cannon like thing that's attached to it?" Josh asked hopefully. That barrel like drone had a cannon attached to it, firing cannonballs at the Elite Barbarians. The cannonballs were bouncing harmlessly off the Elite Barbarians helmets, but they seemed to be taking damage.

The five fresh spawned Bats screeched at the Elite Barbarians, swooping down and head-butting themselves into the Elite Barbarians helmets, which soon after, cracked.

"Hey Jack! Didn't you see those bats crack open that footballer's helmet?" Josh excitedly exclaimed.

"I definitely saw that. Is very surprising to you Josh?" Jack asked.

"Of course it is! I mean, look how small the bats are, and look how hard looking the Elite Barbarian's helmets look!" Josh excitedly replied back.

"Yeah, those Bats sure know how to use their teeth." Jack snickered back as he pressed his back more deep into his seat.

"They had teeth?" Josh asked, very confused. Jack couldn't believe it, and starting giggling uncontrollably.

"Josh? I know you did not just say that!" he snickered.

"I mean, I've seen bats with teeth before, yeah! But, if you look closer at them, it looks like they don't even have teeth at all!" Josh exasperatedly said.

"Trust me, they have teeth. It's just a little too small for some people, who jump to conclusions way too fast!" Jack snickered in reply, glaring at Josh.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I know I'm not a prime example." Josh rolled his eyes and looked back at the field.

The Elite Barbarians were already gone, but the Bats were still alive, flying towards the end-zone, flying and flapping their wings fast so they could win a point for their team.

There was another purple coiffed hair musketeer who was more than a few yards away from the Bats. She squinted at the bats before aiming her musket at them, shooting more cannonballs at the five remaining bats.

The five Bats kept on flying, until one of them glanced at the musketeer. The Musketeer smirked and fired another one, the cannonball slamming straight into that Bat's chest. The bat squealed in pain as it plummeted down towards the ground, exploding into purple goo.

"Don't let them pass the next yard line!" The first blue King shouted in alarm.

"I'm already on that, my friend!" The second blue King pointed at the Bats. A small lightning bolt came out of nowhere and zapped three of the Bats, with three of them having ash burnt on their wings. They fell down to the ground as well.

By now, there was a Hog Rider charging towards the Blue Team's endzone. The crowd started shouting for the two Blue Kings to do something, and they were exasperatedly using all but one of their cards to hold off the Hog Rider, who seemed unstoppable, as a Red looking Mortar immediately spawned just as he crossed the next yard line that was ahead of the center yard line.

"X-Bow, let's…go!" The second Blue King shouted, as the first Blue King threw another spell of rage at the wooden looking self-operated bow that would soon shoot lightning fast.

"So we have an X-Bow? Let's destroy it!" The Hog Rider exclaimed with pride as his hog charged towards the X-Bow. The X-Bow's super-fast bolts of arrows were shooting at the Hog Rider with speeds that are so fast, you can barely even see those small but deadly piercing projectiles.

A bolt of lightning struck the X-Bow, and wood and wooden shrapnel crumbled away from it, just as the Hog Rider finished off its last few remaining points of health.

"Don't…don't…don't…" Both of the Blue Kings murmured in desperation as they desperately were waiting for their elixir to charge up. Eventually, the Hog Rider laughed as he reached the endzone, with most of the whole stadium booing at him, but a few were cheering on. Josh looked in disgust.

The Red Kings were surely overreacting. They jumped for joy, as the Hog Rider rode back towards the center of the field, smirking all around the crowds.

"The Hog Rider has landed the touchdown! You are welcome, people!" The Hog Rider laughed as he swung his hammer at the air a few swift times with skill before heading back down to the sidelines.

"We got nearly a minute left before Overtime. We have to win this." The First Blue King said to the Second Blue King.

The second Blue King raised one of his eyebrows in reply.

"And I can certainly tell that your Most Valuable Player is needed at this point in the game!" The second Blue King replied back.

It took just a few more seconds before everyone was finally situated, and preparing for the third round of the touchdown game.

TWEET!

The Goblin quickly ran back through the door as cover, because, who likes to get pelted by fireballs, arrows, wounds, and all sorts of powerful whatnot?

The first Red King immediately spawned two freshly spawned Elite Barbarians wearing red helmets, while the second Red King clenched his fists for a split second before pointed at the back of the field, and again, another robotic warrior was spawned.

"PAN-CAKES!" he shouted. He always seemed like that was clearly the only recognizable language by anyone that is not a creature like him, and it was like word he could even speak.

"I think we've seen enough." The First Blue King smirked with determination.

"You are certainly right." The Second Blue King replied he pointed a hand gesture towards the middle of the field, and at once, some more blue cuffed flying creatures appeared out of thin air.

Another Prince in the blue team spawned near the back of the stadium, raising his lance with pride, before his pony started galloping with fast force towards the Red Team's endzone.

"YE-OMPH!" The Prince exclaimed as he clobbered the Elite Barbarians away with his lance furiously. The Elite Barbarians were pushed backwards, but they got up with their rage still on as they slammed their swords.

All of a sudden, some more Elite Barbarians appeared in the air and slammed down on the ground. The Barbarians were wearing blue helmets, and they seemed to be carrying on the Blue Team's goal with pride… and anger too.

"Let's Move! CHARGE!" The Elite Barbarians roared from their bellowing mouths that were like a warrior cry towards the Minions and the Prince giving them extra energy to boost forward towards the endzone.

"We got Thirty Seconds left! Come on! Go! Go! Go!" The First King shouted to his team as they persisted forward, smashing everything in sight.

"Haugh!" A Bowler shouted as he rolled his boulder towards a freshly spawned Wizard and Musketeer.

By now, it seemed like the Blue Team's whole crowd of troops was pushing towards the endzone no matter what. Josh could feel his heart rate accelerate as he waited to jump up.

"Fireball!" The Wizard exclaimed as he jumped in the air towards the Bowler and while in the air, casted up a another fireball. Then when he landed, he threw the fireball at the Bowler, blinding him a bit. The Bowler shook his head from a slight dizziness but proceeding to keep on taking down the wizard.

"We got only one shot left!" The First King took a deep breath. "This one, I'm sure my Most Valuable Player can hopefully handle."

"Well let's hope for the best then!" The Second King replied back.

The First King nodded, as he took a deep breath once more, and pointed a finger towards the battlefield.

At once, a cloaked figure appeared, but that was it. Josh and Jack and all the other people right by them couldn't see the face of the figure, but they could see the silky looking cloak flapping with pride.

The figure looked towards the endzone and grinned briefly before dashing towards it, with the Prince and the Minions on one side, and the Musketeer and the Wizard on the other.

"We got this." The Figured smirked briefly before dashing forward towards the last remaining group of the Red Team's troops.

"Go, we have to win this!" The Second Red King shouted as a barrel of Goblins smashed nearby, along with the Bowler, some Bats, and a Dark Prince.

"If our team wants to win this thing, we have to make a path!" The figure turned to the Prince, and that caught Josh's eye. That figure had white hair, was wielding some sort of club or stick, and astonishingly… it was a girl!

"She just got to be the Most Valuable Player." Josh glared at her.

"I'll say." Jack replied back.

"Seriously! The way she quickly devises plans is so cool!" Josh awed at Juno, the Most Valuable Player.

"Yeah. Hey Josh!" Jack asked, but Josh was still looking briefly.

"Hm, oh, yeah?" Josh asked as he broke away from glaring.

"Ninjas do the same thing, so you better start thinking about learning how to plan fast!" Jack smirked.

"I guess so." Josh frowned before they both turned their attention back to the touchdown field.

"You're right!" The Prince exclaimed back as he charged towards the Dark Prince.

"Take some of this!" The Dark Prince shouted as he whammed the club towards the Prince.

"If you want me to take some of that, you're going to have to hit me first!" The Prince replied back fiercely before countering back with a lance jab to the neck.

"And….FIREBALL!" The Wizard shouted as he threw another fireball at the Bowler.

"AH! Gaooah!" The Bowler just in time blocked the fireball with his boulder, but actually took some damage.

The Musketeer smirked as she shot down the bats with great precision, no matter the efforts of the five bats that flew towards her; she was able to get them out at range.

The Minions waved their claws before scratching the goblins fiercely with their claws, the goblins trying desperately to jump up and stab them, but with no luck. Juno managed to find a clear open path towards the endzone just as a timer nearby ahead indicated ten seconds left!

"TEN!"

"Come on!" Juno exclaimed as she crouched down, a bird like sound heard before dashing towards the endzone.

"NINE!"

All of a sudden, one goblin that managed to survive the minions jumped right in front of her!

"EIGHT!"

"Heh ha!" The Goblin snickered as he threw his knife in the air and caught it with his left hand.

"SEVEN!"

Juno rolled her eyes before launching forward a vicious blow to the face.

"SIX!"

"AH!" The Goblin shouted. Juno then dashed around his back, before smashing him in the head with her club like weapon.

"FIVE!"

When the Goblin fell back down on the ground, she stared at the endzone, for it was only meters away!

"FOUR!"

She glared at the goblin for a split-second before dashing her way, weaving past the fighting and commotion between her teammates and the Red Team's troops.

"THREE!"

She crouched down again, this time, this dash was going to be her last go and attempt at winning the Two Crown!

"TWO!"

She dashed forward, her speed unmatchable, as the endzone kept on moving closer and closer towards her. She seemed like a blur from the distance!

"ONE!"

She knew she couldn't make it with full on standing up. She grimaced her teeth behind her mouth as she dived forward, feeling the grass underneath her as she landed on the ground, gaining extra distance, but was it enough?

"TOUCHDOWN!" The Goblin Referee shouted.

With that, confetti from the trapdoors exploded, and the remaining teammates of the Blue King ran over to congratulate their Most Valuable Player, who seemed like she was annoyed by getting stray grass on her cloak, but she brushed most of them away.

"YES! YES! I TOLD YOU SHE SHOWN TREMENDOUS EFFORT AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE!" The First Blue King jumped for joy as the Second King just smiled at the crowd around his teammate's Most Valuable Player. Some of his own troops were in that crowd.

"Well I'll be…" The Second King smiled.

"Now that was close!" Josh was already standing up, and started clapping rapidly with a few others, not for the Most Valuable Player, but because the Blue Team for winning.

"That sure was Josh!" Jack nodded.

Meanwhile, the two Red Kings were so angry at their troops and players, you could see the steam coming out of their ears!

"How dare every one of you!" The Second Red King shouted at the groaning and whimpering clusters of troops around them.

"You have brought shame not only to yourself, but to us too!" The First Red King shouted at a random Goblin's face. The Goblin chuckled nervously with his teeth showing in reply, sweat coming out a bit.

Jack and Josh were one of the last people to ever leave the Stadium though.

Josh wanted to hang around and get more familiar to the world of duels himself, and Jack reluctantly hung back, with just a, "Sure."

"Whoa! Check out those trapdoors! It's like its activating whenever someone crosses the endzone line!" Josh excitedly giggled.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure someone is just operating it." Jack nodded.

"Oh come on! Don't you think the realm we live in has to be more complex than that?!" Josh replied back, when all of a sudden, his ears perked when he heard a nearby conversation between the Most Valuable Player and the First Blue King.

"Three Hundred Forty Nine." The First Blue King was carefully placing down gold in Juno's right hand that was protected by gloves.

"Three Hundred Fifty." The King reached out for another piece of gold.

"Three Hundred Fifty One!" The King finished his payment, while Juno rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"That's it?" she asked.

"Why yes! Didn't you remember that I still have to pay the rest of my team with equal proportions?" The First King explained.

"Yeah sure, whatever. Thanks anyways." The Most Valuable Player turned around, or rather whipped around, her cape nearly flying.

"Hah. She is not so content with what she has." Josh laughed.

"I agree with you." Jack said. "I would sure like to have some of that gold she has, I could really use some."

Josh and Jack checked their pockets, and to their alarm, there were only a couple pieces left.

"Anyways…so onward?" Jack asked Josh.

"Yeah, let's go." Josh nodded.

Jack and Josh were just a couple meters behind Juno, who shook her head constantly while looking down as she walked.

"Three Hundred Fifty One Gold? Pleeeease…" Juno muttered.

Josh sped up his pace of walking, and Jack noticed that, so he did the same thing.

"Maybe I should…" she muttered to herself before nodding slowly.

"I'm sure the gold storage back home at Jungle Arena can sure use a little bit of take out." She finally came to her decision, before whipping her cape and ran.

Josh was shocked, but Jack didn't seem to see or hear.

"Did you just hear that? She is planning to rob a gold storage for extra gold!" Josh exclaimed.

"Really?" Jack was surprised.

"Yeah, come on! Let's follow her!" Josh said.

"You can't be sure that she is being sarcastic or not though." Jack replied back.

"Well, you got a point. Well, let's just follow her anyways!" Josh pleaded.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt. Let's go!" Jack nodded.

 **DMCsupergamer: It has been a very long time, over a month now since I last updated chapter 4! School stuff and such, as well as family obligations, but you can be sure that I will try to make this story, as well as the others, reach their maximum potential, in making YOU viewers, feel comfortable reading my stories. Once, again, keep on the lookout for chapter 6 as the rising action of the plot continues its course!**


	7. Sneak Attack

Chapter 6: Sneak Attack

It wasn't long before Josh and Jack finally caught up with Juno, but of course, they were successfully managing to conceal their presence from her.

They were currently in a dense but spaced out Jungle, its trees looming down, creating odd but beautiful looking shadows. There were a few goblins lurking around the place, though they seemed interested in moving about and doing their own thing. That was good for Josh. He didn't like making a lot of enemies.

"Hey Josh." Jack whispered as they crept over by a nearby tree and peeked over where Juno was headed.

"Yeah Jack?" Josh asked.

"You got any ideas on where we should stay for the night?" Jack asked.

Josh was dumbfounded. He couldn't think of anything to spend the night in right from the top of his head.

"My mind's blank." Josh replied back, and sighed quietly.

Jack jerked back near Josh when Juno stopped for a second, looked around her to make sure no one was spying on her, and then broke her running pace to more of a walking pace.

"Good Josh." Jack smirked.

"Huh? What do you mean good? What's so good about not thinking of a place where we should sleep?" Josh asked quietly, confused.

"No, it's good for you Josh." Jack smirked as he jabbed his index finger in Josh's chest for a second. "Then you'll learn how to be independent without me being around to help you."

"Oh no no Jack! I'm not ready to be independent yet!" Josh nervously whispered.

Jack motioned Josh to follow him so they wouldn't get too far behind Juno.

"That's what you think Josh." Jack whispered. "But I know who you really are."

"No… the only person who knows me better is me!" Josh replied back.

"And anyways," Jack whispered again, as Juno disappeared behind a clump of bushes. "I'm probably going to stay with you for a few days, but I'd reckon I'd journey outside myself."

"Stay with me for a few days, sure." Josh was relieved. The future didn't even matter to him at this point, the only thing that matter to him was the present and the very near future ahead of him.

"Okay, get behind this tree." Jack pulled Josh over to a nearby tree and waited for a few more seconds until the sound of footsteps became nearly faint.

"Now?" Josh asked. Jack nodded in reply.

"Now."

Jack and Josh crept over to the bushes and rummaged past the branches and twigs that got in their way. Josh was in the front, and Jack was in the back. Jack kept on snickering quietly as he saw Josh's face getting hit by nearby twigs and branches and sharp leaves sticking out all over the place.

"You know Josh; you could actually be a great person to get behind on!" Jack joked. "That way, you can clear the path for everyone behind you!"

"Yeah, whatever. That was pretty amusing." Josh rolled his eyes, annoyed.

Josh and Jack finally made it past the big large clumps of bushes and made their way towards a nearby river that had flowing rapids passing through. The banks were all coated in moss and leaves, but there were a few stepping stones in the water.

"Josh?" Jack smiled as he nudged Josh forward.

"There's no way I'm going across those stepping stones with those rushing rapids that are cold waters!" Josh exclaimed as he motioned Jack to get in front of him.

"If you insist." Jack looked around, seeing if there were any items he and Josh could use. He was in luck. There were a couple of wooden planks scattered about. What happened to them anyways? Maybe they had fallen out of some Flying Machine or something.

"You really mean it?" Josh was stunned.

"Of course Josh!" Jack bent down to pick up the nearby wooden planks, and then threw them across the first few stepping stones. Josh was about to go forwards into the plank like bridge, but Jack stopped him.

"Uh uh. You said, I will go first." Jack smirked briefly before walking across the planks. Each time he saw the planks path ending and the rest of the stepping stone like rocks appearing, he threw some more wooden planks down.

"Hey wait, careful Jack! Those planks are gonna…!" Josh gulped in fear as the planks underneath Jack began to break. Jack looked down and quickly leaped across the rest of the planks, before finally leaping back down towards the other side.

"Okay Josh! Your turn!" Jack called to him in a very quiet voice.

"How funny." Josh glared at him as he looked around for some more items, but there was nothing to help him. He glanced over at the cracked up planks. About half of them have already crumbled straight into the river, and the rest of them looked severely unstable.

Josh gulped.

"Okay. You can do this Josh. You can do it!" he thought to himself as he took a deep breath, before scrambling past the first wooden plank.

He heard a cracking sound as he kept on running, past the planks, which were cracking underneath his weight, which was unfortunate. They had already taken enough weight from Jack, and now they had to face more weight pressure?

"Doh! AH!" Josh was in terror. Every time he was certain to fall down into the river, it was like running across a ship that is just about to crumble apart any minute into the sea, taking everyone on board with it, the sea like waters swallowing everyone and the ship up.

Jack leaned his back up against a nearby tree and rested a foot up against the tree and looked at the amusing scene of his brother trying to scramble across the planks. Well, it was amusing in his opinion that is!

The planks were smashing completely into the river, and each time Josh heard a splash, his adrenaline jumped up to all parts of his body, at least what Josh felt, and that gave him just a bit of a boost.

Jack was just about ready to congratulate Josh for going through that easy looking obstacle course when he could seriously see the planks underneath Josh disappearing fast! Josh was about two or maybe three planks ahead from the rest of the planks simultaneously dropping down into the fast rapid like waters.

One of the planks nearby collapsed into the river, and a speck of cold water hit Josh right just above his ankle. Just that one speck of cold water made him exclaim in fear as he finished his dash across the water and stepping stones. As soon as Josh finished, he put his right hand next to a tree, leaned over a bit and panted a bit.

"You are certainly a tough one Josh." Jack was smiling as he forced Josh back to focus. "But remember that we are still trailing someone. We got no time to waste, let's go!"

"Oh, fine, okay! Wait, just give me a breather-" Josh began, but Jack already grabbed him and started running silently. Josh tried hard not to breath too much as he could feel oxygen slowly seeping out of his mouth.

Jack had luckily taken a good mental picture of where Juno went, as when he first saw the river, he could see Juno who was still walking north.

"Come on Josh. Breathe in, and out!" Josh kept on whispering to his brother as they kept on scampering and running towards the path that Juno was taking. They finally saw her just a few meters away from them, patting her pockets suspiciously before creeping down nearby a bush. She then scampered towards another bush east just a few meters from the bush Josh and Jack saw.

"There's the gold storage!" Josh exclaimed before Jack quickly covered Josh's mouth with a hand.

"Quiet or she'll hear us!" Jack whispered urgently.

"Ooops, sorry!" Josh whispered back nervously.

In front of Juno, there was a huge clearing, but it was in an arena. There were wooden bridges, two of them, one north and one south from where Josh and Jack were facing. There were large stone King and Princess Towers which no one was guarding or on, but the thing that mostly caught their attention was the huge gold storage looming up nearby just a few feet away from the north bridge.

"Let's keep watching." Jack hustled Josh to a nearby bush just a few yards away from where Juno was creeping up on.

There were two Goblin Guards standing next to the gold storage, with spears in their hands. They were looking around casually just making sure no one had any sneaky moves for stealing Jungle Arena's prized loot.

Juno slowly pulled out her club with her right hand and took out what looked like to be a gray looking bomb in her left hand. She chuckled briefly to herself before rubbing the small rope of the fuse of the bomb with the club. Thanks friction, it took just a few rubs before the fuse caught on fire.

"Just one bomb…I got this." Juno whispered to herself before aiming her hand with the bomb towards the guards. She licked her lips briefly before throwing the bomb straight towards the goblin guards, the bomb making a perfect arc in the air, tumbling in all directions as it landed straight near the goblin guards, and rolled towards them.

"Wait…" the First Goblin Guard realized. The Second Goblin Guard gulped.

"SMOKE-BOMB!" Both of them shouted as they quickly bolted away, diving for cover as the bomb exploded on impact, causing a huge wave of smoke erupting all over the place, blinding their vision temporarily. That was good. That was what Juno wanted.

Juno grinned as she leaped from the bushes and ran towards the Gold Storage, before climbing on the ladder and eyeing all of the precious gold stashed up inside. It was more than enough for her, but she could only hold so much in her…

Juno took out a large brown sack from one of her pockets and scooped up a huge handful of gold, and threw them into her sack. She kept on scooping up more, and more, and more. Finally, it seemed like the sack was going to burst up itself.

Juno, nodding briefly in satisfaction, managed to somehow stuff the oversized sack into her pocket. Well, the sack was still sticking out, but at least part of it was safely concealed.

Josh looked disgusted.

"So that's her way of stealing gold huh…" Josh glared at her. He wanted to help the Goblin Guards, but at the same time, he knew this would only get into more trouble. Thanks to his thinking!

"I reckon!" Jack was fairly amused by this. "I must admit, that is a really nifty way of getting you huge stashes of gold! I'm not saying we should try these ourselves but…" Jack found Josh glaring at him, annoyed.

"Right…let's just keep watching." Jack chuckled. He and Josh turned towards Juno again.

The smoke from the smoke bomb had nearly faded away, and the two Goblin Guards were staggering and stumbling all over the place, using their free hand to waft away the smoke from the area.

Juno had just finished climbing down the ladder safely when she realized that it was only a matter of time before the Goblin Guards would get their vision regained back. She thought to herself for a few seconds before dashing away, right when the Goblin Guards moved back towards the Gold Storage.

"Wow. We just have to follow her again!" Josh exclaimed as he walked forward, but Jack stopped him.

"No Josh. Let's just find ourselves a place to sleep and get some rest. She has her own reasons." Jack assured.

"But we can't just let her get away!" Josh said exasperatedly. The Goblin Guards checked the Gold Storage as they thought the smoke bomb was an ambush, and sure enough, there was a large portion worth of gold missing.

"I should've known this was a sneak attack." The First Guard Goblin muttered angrily.

"I will alert the nearby Executioners about this problem. You just keep guard!" The Second Goblin said, as he ran off. The First Goblin Guard became more cautious, this time, instead of holding his spear up, he had it wielded and pointed.

"Just let her go! I'm sure we can catch up to her next time!" Jack reasoned.

"By then she is going to be far gone! Let's just hurry up after her while we can!" Josh replied as he tried to move forward again, but this time Jack grabbed him by the arm.

"No Josh! I'm not going to let you go near someone who is highly dangerous! Who knows of any other weapons she might have with her!" Jack firmly and sternly said.

Josh looked his arm with Jack's hand on it, and then firmly glared at Jack's eyes.

"You know what? If I want to show you I am independent, fine! This will prove it!" Josh jerked his arm away and ran off, not even thinking.

Jack just stood there, glaring at Josh.

"So long Josh. Good luck with that." Jack breathed sighs of different feelings. He never expected this, but of course, this time around Josh was really putting thought into being independent. Jack turned around and found a nearby path, similar to the one the Goblin Guard took.

"Now, onward with my adventure…"

Josh grumbled as he ran through the dense jungle, trying his best to catch up. He knew the Most Valuable Player's speed was unmatchable, but he was certainly not going to let her just get away with stealing!

"Doh! She is going to pay for this!" Josh exasperatedly grumbled, but then a small slight smile came from the corner of his mouth. "Maybe literally."


	8. Stupid Intruder

Chapter 7: Stupid Intruder

Josh ran through the jungle, hoping to keep his eyes fixed for a very sneaky fourteen year old bandit. It Juno on the other hand, started to quicken her pace of running a few seconds later, and dashed off passed some bushes. Josh growled silently and quickened his pace too, but he was getting tired.

Running for minutes, crossing a river, and then running more minutes? How much more could he even handle?

Josh slowed down as he stopped near some bushes and wove his hands through them, trying to see if he could find anything past the bushes. Just more land. Josh groaned.

"Seriously?"

Josh took a deep breath and continued his running,

His legs were aching in pain and he had a feeling of pain just near his right side of his stomach. He felt that the pain was affecting his right lung.

Josh kept on persisting, although his legs were aching fast, and he didn't even know how to stop the pain. He always felt that running was something that you had to either keep on doing until you feel pained and tired to continue to run anymore.

Juno tucked her brown sack deeper into her pocket as she kept running, breathing at a steady pace so she wouldn't feel any pain at all that would at least last for a few more minutes. She had an odd feeling that someone was following her, but her running was nearly as quiet as a whisper.

Juno jumped through another bush and noticed a stone pillar that was slanted sideways a bit on the top and there was another stone that held a big boulder that looked as big as a Bowler's boulder, only twice the size.

Juno looked back behind her for a split-second before dashing towards the stone pillar and smashed the stone away with her club. The stone was sent flying away, and the big boulder made a giant cracking noise, before rolling towards the opposite direction Juno was heading.

"That should keep them away…" Juno's voice whispered to herself as she dashed forward.

Josh fought his way through more stray twigs while trying his best to ignore the tense pain from his whole body. For a few seconds, he didn't even know why he was chasing after the Most Valuable Player, but when the pain kicked it, that slammed him back to reality.

Josh looked around wildly. He was sure he had lost her, when just as that thought entered his mind, he could hear a rumbling ahead of him, and a circular shadow appeared, before a giant boulder appeared just yards away from him!

"Oh shoot…" Josh gulped.

Josh ran towards the Boulder, before leaping sideways, his feet bouncing off a nearby tree. He then propelled himself forward from that, giving himself extra momentum and speed to move forward and successfully dodge the boulder.

Juno quickly glanced behind her again before finding a nearby tree trunk that looked like it was on the edge of cracking. Juno scrambled towards it and leaped onto the tree trunk, the tree trunk bending near the ground. She leaped from it and resumed her quick dashing.

"Come on…where is she?" Josh muttered to himself desperately as he kept on running straight forward, and was just about to leap over the tree trunk when the tree trunk lurched back up and whacked Josh in the face!

"OOF!" Josh exclaimed in surprise as he fell backwards back onto the grass. Josh shook the pain out from his face and fought his way through the tree trunk, making sure it doesn't retaliate back again. The tree trunk was surprisingly rough to him, but he wouldn't let that stop him. Not when he was in hot pursuit of a sneaky fourteen year old bandit!

Juno finally stopped in front of a building that looked camouflaged into the trees. It looked just like a giant stone and wooden hut, but it was all over the place, the hut's structure in all different directions. Juno glanced back at her pocket. The sack was still there, safe and sound.

Juno breathed out a sigh of relief silently as she walked towards the hut.

Josh swatted more trees and sticks out of the way as the pain worsened even more. He thought about Jack. Maybe if he had helped him on this chase, maybe he wouldn't have been so tired and pained as he would have felt right now.

No…that would be insane if Jack agreed to help him chase down the Most Valuable Player. Maybe Jack was right? Maybe it wasn't a good idea to chase down her.

Josh felt a hint of remorseful in his heart as he slowed his quickening pace down, before looking back. In the bottom of his heart he wanted to tell him sorry, but how far was he from him?

His actions were far enough. As more and more seconds pass, Josh was tempted to turn around and apologize, when all of a sudden, as he pushed past more green shrubs, he could see a big hut like building in front of him.

At once all of that feelings of remorseful and feelings of regret vanished away, as Josh then knew and realized.

"So this is her hideout?"

Josh brushed away green leaves from his hand and walked towards the building, trying to silent the noise of his footsteps. He looked around the building, trying to find if there was any way in.

"Six Hundred and Four. Six Hundred and Five…" Juno was silently counting all of her earned stashed that day, keeping her club by her side just in case any of those annoying spies or intruders managed to get through. All of her gold was neatly spread out in a table, some sacks with gold pouring out sat at the opposite side of the table besides Juno.

Josh looked around some more, only to find nearby trees with branches that looked like it was poking straight into the building.

"Hey…" Josh realized.

Branches that were poking straight into the building? Maybe that could be something.

Josh could see a big tall tree just a few feet away from him. Josh immediately remembered a flashback from a TV show, one of his favorites, where a ninja climbed straight up a tree like a cat. When Josh first saw that, he knew being a ninja was his ultimate goal.

"Here we go…" Josh tensed up both of his hands before sprinting towards the tree silently, before leaping straight on the trunk, his hands clawing at the bark. He did every single thing he remembered the ninja do. Swiftly and silently make it up the tree, and not to spend too much time trying to balance you. The momentum gained from jumping will only last for just a few seconds, so climbing up the fastest you can is the best thing you can do.

Josh was sure he was going to slide back down when he immediately on impulse jumped up and grabbed a nearby tree branch. Josh felt his heart leaped up and his gulped silently. He slowly glanced down below him.

He was over six and a half feet above the ground when starting at his feet! His mind focused on a window that was ahead of him, being carelessly left open. Josh licked his lips briefly before using his remaining strength to start his way towards the window, reminding him of Monkey-Bars.

At least he can relate to this frightening situation with things from the past. Juno could hear the sound of tree bark cracking, as she tensed up. She slid up her club a bit more on her belt as she quietly resumed counting, cautious of her surroundings.

Josh grunted in pain as he pulled up as hard as he could, before toppling over and falling on the second floor. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he just lay there, panting. Juno could hear the sound of someone on the second floor, as she closed her eyes and breathed out heavily.

"Gosh darn it. Why do I always forget to close the freaking second floor window?" Juno muttered to herself as she slowly took her baton from her belt and dashed over behind a wall that was near the staircase that led up. Josh finally regained some more oxygen and went over near a wall next to the staircase that led downstairs to the first floor.

Josh could feel his heart pounding. He hoped he wouldn't get severely hurt, or worse…

Juno glanced towards the top of the staircase and saw nothing…but a shadow. Juno quickly jerked back. Josh slowly made a big tip-toe towards the staircase… maybe a too big of a tip-toe. His foot lost footing near the top of the staircase, and he felt himself exclaim in surprise as he fell forward and crashed and rolled down the stairs.

Josh scrambled back up and gulped nervously, but didn't dare to smile. Juno was a few feet in front of him, her hands on her hips.

"Um…heh heh…" Josh was at a loss for words.

"So…you managed to stay alive during your chase with me hm?" Juno growled.

"Wait… how did you know?" Josh was astounded.

"Because," Juno was annoyed. "Why else would I have sent the boulder and the tree trunk at you?"

"Oh, right." Josh gulped.

"Well," Juno started, as she threw her club in the air, the club flipping in a mesmerizing pattern before she caught it in her right hand again. "I don't think you'll make it past this one."

Josh grew slightly infuriated. Why was he acting so passive against a bandit who stolen over hundreds worth of gold from a gold storage?

"Oh, I won't be so sure of that!" Josh said angrily at her. "I saw everything. You participating at the arena, you complaining about not getting enough gold, so you robbed a gold storage just for gold." Josh shook his head. "That's pretty amusing."

Juno rolled her eyes. "Mhm, sure. So what are you gonna do about it? Hand me over to those Executioners? I don't think so."

Josh grew more annoyed.

"You really know how to pick a fight!" Josh was beginning to lose his temper.

Juno rolled her eyes again as she dashed towards Josh, smacking the club against his chest. Josh's eyes widened as he was sent backward and smashed into the staircase wall, crumbling just a bit of it with his back.

"Ow!" Josh growled before getting back up and rubbing his back. "It's on!"

Josh quickly jumped and lashed out with a kick towards Juno, but Juno quickly leaped backwards and lashed downwards with her club again at Josh's leg. Juno then swiftly went under the leg and grabbed Josh's back, and pushed him forward. Josh rolled forward and turned around.

Josh breathed out heavily as he tried his best to intimidate her. He flexed out his arms for a few seconds before rolling forward, getting his fists in stance. Juno just glared at his pathetic moves. Juno dashed forward again and hit Josh straight in the chest again with the club, and that sent Josh flying towards the table. Josh exclaimed in pain again as he got back up, and clenched his teeth, his back up against the table.

"Alright! Play Time is over!" Josh growled angrily again.

"I never started playing idiot." Juno's gloves tensed more on her club.

Back at Jungle Arena, Five Executioners rushed towards the Goblin Guards who breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Yes! Executioners, I know you will do just fine out-" The Second Goblin Guard started before the lead Executioner grabbed the Goblin Guard's throat, the goblin squirming in pain.

"You imbeciles! You are supposed to guard the storage and not let one bandit steal anything! Now look what you have done!" The Lead Executioner spat.

"We have barely half our storage filled!" another Executioner exclaimed to the Executioners as he peeked over the looted storage.

The Lead Executioner shook his head in dismay, before shoving the Goblin Guard back down on the ground.

"Ack! My throat!" The Goblin Guard gasped in pain as he clenched his throat, trying his best to relieve all of the pain. The Other Goblin Guard helped him.

"We'll have to split-up if we want to find this culprit." The Lead Executioner finished as he patted his axe briefly.

"Splitting Up? But-" An Executioner started, but the Lead Executioner held up a hand.

"You two." He pointed to two of the Executioners. "I'm sending you to search off the southern side of the jungle that is near the arena."

"And you two." He pointed to another two of the Executioners. "You will search the central side. As for me, I'll be off seeing if there could be any clues."

The Executioners nodded, except the Executioner who thought splitting up wasn't a good idea. But he shrugged and went off to help search the central side.

Josh lunged a punch towards Juno, who blocked it and kicked Josh in the stomach, before spinning around and whacking Josh in the face with her club. Josh was sent flying backwards but kept on proceeding to fight.

He couldn't just lose to a bandit. He just couldn't!

Josh blocked two hits from Juno, and then lashed back with a punch, but as soon as Juno finished her second lash, she held the club vertically from her, blocking the attack. Then Josh kicked forwards at Juno all of a sudden, just as Juno blocked it with her elbow. They both were sent backwards just a few inches, both still in their stance.

Josh took a deep breath and muttered angrily.

"How is she this good? I never thought I'd actually lose against her…but…" Josh shook his head. He couldn't just lose.

Josh then punched towards Juno, who blocked it, and Josh threw another punch. Juno blocked it again, but this time Josh spun around and while he was in the air he side-punched towards Juno.

Juno's eyes widened as she ducked, and then blocked three more hits from Josh with her club, whacking Josh straight in the arm. Josh jerked back and shook out the pain from his arm.

"You sure aren't gonna back down yet!" Josh stated angrily at her, as he shook out the pain from his fists while he was in his stance.

"Me backing down from someone turning me in?" Juno rolled her eyes. "No way is that gonna happen."

Josh tried to remember some of the moves that he and Jack were practicing earlier that day. What kinds of moves did Jack threw at him?

Josh jumped in the air towards Juno and threw a flurry of fast punches towards her, all inaccurately. Juno blocked most of them, but Josh knew that was just a distraction. Josh then quickly ducked downwards and spun around just as Juno tried to counter-attack with her club, and Josh punched towards Juno's face.

Juno had just enough time to block it with her club, but her club was too close, so she was sent backwards from the punch. Juno's boots screeched against the floor as she dusted off her club for a split-second before Josh jumped up again towards her.

"Take some of this to your content!" Josh exclaimed angrily as he hook punched towards Juno. Juno ducked, and Josh quickly kicked towards her legs. Juno blocked four hits before ducking another hook punch to the face, before grabbing hold of Josh's back to hit him again, but this time Josh was ready for it.

Josh grabbed Juno's gloves as he bent down slightly before throwing her over him. Josh then punched towards Juno, who was on the ground, but Juno quickly kicked him in the neck and throwing Josh over her. Josh was sent forward and rolled once. Juno rolled backwards and they resumed their stance.

Juno squinted at Josh, backing off towards other things. "So…I guess I've lost huh?"

Josh felt his heart leap up. "And I won! And you lose!" Josh didn't want to smile just yet. "It's all over for you. You lose!"

Juno's back pressed up against a wooden drawer. Without looking, she opened the second drawer, her hands slightly fumbling on the knob as she opened it, before pulling out a dagger before Josh's eyes.

The dagger had a handle that was made from dark jungle wood, with vines woven around it to keep the blade in place. The blade looked like it was made from the same material as an Executioner's Axe…only it looked much more different. It didn't have that shine the axe had.

"Wait…" Josh immediately felt himself leap back in fear.

"I don't use those kinds of weapons in fights! Honest!"

Juno chuckled to herself, not looking amused.

"You're the stupidest thief who ever tried to turn me in." Juno shook her head. "And that's saying something, because you are even worser than those goblins who tried to rob me."

"Goblins robbed you?" Josh felt shocked. "So that was why you needed that gold, so you can-"

"I said tried, didn't I?" Juno exclaimed, her voice nearly reaching to a point of shouting.

Josh backed up some more. He didn't even know where he was slowly backing up against, but he was aware that he was making a few turns and curves.

"Okay, okay…" Josh looked around, hoping to find some other weapon to help him. He didn't find anything in sight.

Juno tucked her club back into her belt as she now wielded her dagger in her right hand. Josh looked around wildly for a split second before, not knowing where he was backing up against, was slowly backing up against the stairs.

"I'll make it so that you won't come back again!" Juno exclaimed. "Actually, I'll make it so that you can't come back again!"

Juno was clearly angry as she kept on following Josh, who was glaring at her nervously, backing up against more steps on the staircase.

"Um…" Josh was at a loss for words. He was freaking out. He was beginning to immediately feel the regret in him as he finished the last steps of the stairs backwards.

"Besides...I've stabbed a bunch of people before. You wouldn't be any different." Juno pointed the dagger at Josh even closer. Josh felt his heart beating faster and faster.

Josh then noticed that Juno was about to finish the last steps on the staircase, and he knew that gravity could help him out, hopefully. Josh unleashed another kick towards Juno, but Juno was ready for it.

Juno blocked the kick with her left hand and pushed Josh forward, Josh falling back down on the floor. Juno kept on walking towards him, a slightly smile curving on her face.

Josh took a deep breath. This would be his last opportunity to save himself.

Josh jumped up and landed a bunch of punches towards Juno, and Juno in response ducked the first few before grabbing Josh's left fist, and kicking him in the shin.

"Ow!" Josh groaned in pain.

Josh lashed out a right fist towards Juno, who grabbed it and pushed Josh forward. Josh stumbled around, dazed.

Juno smirked as she leaped forward and stabbed Josh straight in the stomach, her knife sinking inches in. Josh's eyes widened he felt excruciating pain in him. It felt like his whole stomach was being ripped apart.

Juno then pushed Josh again towards the carelessly opened window before giving a kick in the chest to finish it off. Josh shouted in agony and pain as he fell out of the window, and tumbling past wooden shingles on the rooftops. He fell straight down on the ground, not double up, but his whole body was facing up, and his head was tilted and facing the right side. He was groaning in pain.

Juno then glared at Josh, smiling evilly before closing the carelessly opened window and headed back downstairs.

Meanwhile, a nearby Executioner who was part of the five Executioners flinched to the sound of a big thump in the ground. He followed the sound before finally coming across a horrifying sight.

"HEY! Check this out!" The Executioner shouted.

At once, another Executioner heard him, and knew something was found. He shouted for the rest of the Executioners, and they all rushed upon Josh, unconsciousness and breathing slowly, and wounded pretty bad.

"Do you think…?" An Executioner looked at the rest of the Executioners.

The Lead Executioner nodded and took out what looked like to be a glass bottle filled with yellow liquid inside.

"We'll find out what he knows."


	9. Nickname Mockery

Chapter 8: Nickname Mockery

"Wha….what's going on?" Josh mumbled.

His vision was completely blacked out, but there was a circular oval in the middle of his vision that wasn't completely blacked out, and at least Josh could see at least a bit of his surroundings.

"Look, he's waking up!" He heard someone exclaim.

"Good." Josh heard another voice.

Josh took a few more seconds to blink and look around his surroundings, and he could vaguely make out the scene of some Executioners around him, and a familiar Gold Storage looming off just a few meters away.

"W-Where am I?" Josh groaned as held his right hand over his forehead. He turned around and it turned out that he was slumped up against a tree.

"You nearly have been done for if it wasn't for this Executioner." An Executioner firmly said to Josh as he pointed over to another Executioner.

"I can sure use some explaining then." Josh muttered.

"We'll fill you in briefly before getting to business straight." The Lead Executioner replied.

"I heard a sound that was very unusual in the jungle. Similar to that of a crashing near a ground. I followed the noise, and that's where I find you." The Executioner who discovered Josh explained. "The other Executioners found out about it, and the reason why you are still alive is because we have given you a Healing Spell."

"Thanks." Josh sighed as he rested himself and gave in to slumping against the tree again. "What do you want with me?" He asked in a neutral tone.

"All we need is a simple explanation." The Lead Executioner started. "Why were you wounded?"

Josh thought for a few seconds. He tried to remember everything. It was very hard to grasp the thought, but he could remember that frightening moment when he was slowly backing up towards the window and Juno's sharp dagger slicing through the air and eventually contacting on his stomach, sending a powerful pain that went through all of his body, one of the most powerful feelings that he could not bear.

He then vaguely remembered Juno's kick to his chest as he stumbled over past the carelessly opened window, rolling down on a slanted slope like object, before tumbling down and hitting the ground on contact. At that moment he couldn't remember what happened. Not even the moment when he blacked out.

Josh explained everything that happened at the fight between him and Juno to the Executioners. At least he could remember the reason why he tracked down Juno, and he included that in his explanation to the Executioners, who were listening carefully.

He also explained how Juno, or rather, "The Most Valuable Player" owned a dagger which she kept secretly in her drawer, and that was the weapon in which she used to critically stab him straight in the stomach.

When Josh was finished telling what he could make out from his memory, the Executioners nodded, looking like they understood.

"I see…" The Lead Executioner looked away. "Most Valuable Player, you say?"

"Uh…yes! That's right!" Josh replied.

The Lead Executioner ran his fingers smoothly at the side of his axe. "What do you guys think? Do you think her 'Most Valuable Player' powers will work against us?"

"Naw." One of the Executioners snickered. "There's no way that can happen, and I doubt that will even happen."

"Young boy," The Lead Executioner looked back at Josh. "Tell us everything you know about her."

Josh rolled his eyes when he heard the Lead Executioner call him "Young boy".

"Yeah, sure. I'll tell you everything you need to know." Josh replied. He'd do anything to get revenge on someone who caused him great pain, physically!

After Josh finished his explanation, an Executioner motioned Josh to follow him, while the other Executioners walked away.

"Come with me."

The Executioner led Josh into the forest, again. Josh was utterly confused and puzzled by where the Executioner was going and leading him, but he assumed that it would be a place of some value. After all, it seemed like the Executioners knew what they were doing.

"So...um. What are the other Executioners doing?" Josh asked the Executioner.

"Well, they are working on some unfinished business." The Executioner snickered back.

"Unfinished Business?" Josh's ears perked up. "Like what kind of unfinished business?"

"Let's just say that, it's unfinished business to get things right. And besides, you contributed to the unfinished business." The Executioner replied.

"Really?" Josh asked.

"Unfinished Business, right." The Executioner turned to Josh.

"Unfinished Business...oh. I know what you meant." Josh smirked.

The Executioner nodded as he turned around and continued to led Josh through the forest.

Josh looked up at the night sky. It was nearly bright outside with the moon nearly at the top of the sky shining. It must've been pretty late by now, but not too late, like midnight.

The Executioner and Josh walked in silence for a few more seconds, before the Executioner finally looked in the distance.

"We are almost there..."

A few long minutes later, Josh could see large iron made walls all over the place, neatly trimmed in the extra stone that was crumbling out. There were iron bars, indicating jail cells, and there were big bridges that were built up and down in the big massive fortress like jail. There were stairs going around and were built near the bridges, and they were of course made out of the stone like brick material. The material for this place seemed like the theme for a prison.

"What is this place?" Josh asked, looking around as the Executioner was leading him through one of the big stone built bridges.

"We keep all of our dirty criminals at this place." The Executioner replied back, a smirk on his face. "No one has ever escaped this Maximum Security Prison, oh; they only get executed here now and then."

That sent shivers up Josh's spine.

"Right…yeah." Josh chuckled nervously.

Some bridges had little turret like walls, and Josh could see on other bridges other men that were neatly marching across. Some men had big bushy eyebrows and carrying big silver like guns that looked intimidating enough if you got closer.

"Now, let's watch your enemy humiliated." The Executioner snickered as he motioned Josh over to an observatory platform that was nearby in the bridge they were currently in. Josh followed him, and noticed that there were torches flaming, providing light sources for everyone else at the prison.

Other than that, it seemed pretty dark.

Josh and the Executioner finally walked over to the Observatory Platform and Josh could see down below the big entrance of the big maximum security Executioner jail. There was another bridge that was leading out through the gate like door, which was made out of iron spears.

Josh leaned closer and looked closer at what looked like to be four Executioners surrounding someone very familiar…..

The Lead Executioner lit up a torch and moved it closer to Juno's face, the other Executioners holding her in place. Juno tried to not face the torch as she showed an annoyed look at the Lead Executioner.

"Aw… such a sad face. But now, tonight is the last night you will live onto." The Lead Executioner snickered at Juno. Juno narrowed her eyes at him in anger. Josh felt relaxed.

"Now this is what I want to see!" Josh nodded.

"Should we execute her tomorrow morning? Not much of our prisoners have scheduled to be executed tomorrow." One of the Executioners grabbing Juno's right arm asked the Lead Executioner.

"Oh, that will be just fine!" The Lead Executioner exclaimed, before walking onward on the bridge. The Executioners motioned Juno to walk forward. She sighed audibly and continued to walk forward.

Josh didn't know what to say. The bandit who nearly killed him and the Executioners managed to catch her! Why wasn't he feeling glad about this? He felt mixed feelings deep inside of him for some strange reason.

"There's going to be whole crowds watching her get executed. Oh, you can be sure it's a whole bunch!" The Executioner besides Josh snickered. "And you can have a free front row invitation!"

"Thanks for your offer." Josh tried grinning. "I'd gladly accept it."

The Executioner then smirked briefly before hustling Josh back outside. Josh looked up at the night sky and the moon glowing brightly in the sky.

"Am I truly feeling satisfied?"

Josh shook his head as he started to find a place to sleep.

"You know, we couldn't have caught you without our help from a young boy. You know who he was?" The Lead Executioner snickered at Juno. The other Executioners grinned.

Juno rolled her eyes, waiting for an answer.

"I hope it's not who I think he is." She thought to herself.

"Why, if it isn't the boy you stabbed of course!" The Lead Executioner exclaimed.

Juno dreaded that answer, as she mumbled a slight growl from her throat.

"If only I could be given another chance to stab him…" Juno thought to herself.

"Hey there!" said a nearby man wearing a blue cap and wielding an iron plated looking gun. "You guys caught another bandit?"

"That's right Hunter! And a very special one too!" The Lead Executioner mocked.

"Oh?" Hunter asked.

"Her team calls her, 'The Most Valuable Player'!" The Lead Executioner replied back. The Other Executioners and Hunter laughed. Juno tried to use this as an attempt to escape, but the Executioners of course had a firm grip. She could only just shoot glares at them and keep her mouth shut from exposing more embarrassment on her.

"Ah, well. Have a fun time with executing her!" Hunter laughed again as he walked off and wave.

"Yeah, have a good one!" One of the Executioners laughed as they escorting Juno forward. Juno could feel the cold, stale air as she was pushed further and further into the hallway of ordinary cells… though by the way they were motioning her forward, it didn't look like she would get an ordinary cell.

After a few long seconds dragged on, the Executioners and Juno stopped in front of a door that was barred shut with iron bolts and with stone and spears all attached around it.

"Oh, right." One of the Executioners snickered evilly.

"We don't want to take our chances 'Most Valuable Player'." Another of the Executioners snickered at Juno.

"Yeah, whatever." Juno replied back, applying voice force towards that last word.

One of the Executioners raised his axe and slammed down the complex looking locks off the door, and the door creaked open to the right. Juno could just look in disgust. The room was completely bare, and it looked entirely empty. Nothing in sight.

"Maybe you can think about your life flashing before your eyes the night before your Execution!" The Lead Executioner exclaimed evilly to Juno as he gestured the rest of the four Executioners with one hand. The Executioners nodded as they pushed Juno forward it. Juno stumbled forward but kept maintaining herself from falling over, for falling over would result in more laughter.

"Hah ha! Have a pleasant Good Night!" The Lead Executioner exclaimed to Juno, his teeth showing as he slammed the door, the sound of locking followed, before footsteps that grew fainter and fainter.

"Whatever." Juno decided to look around the room. Maybe there could be something that can help her escape.

But there was nothing. The room was completely bare of anything, nothing. There was a small window up near the top that was protected by iron bars, letting the moonlight shine in, the floor gleaming dark bluish purplish.

The air was cold, stale, and drafty. The floor felt rough underneath Juno's boots as she walked around, the place. At least this place seemed a lot bigger than the average cells.

Juno sighed as she sat in the corner, her elbows resting on her legs as she tapped her right thumb against her left hand.

"What am I gonna do now?" She thought to herself. She shook her head. Without anything in the room with an inescapable window, it's practically impossible to escape!

"Don't worry Juno, everything's gonna be fine." She consoled herself.

Juno started thinking about the possible scenarios to how she could escape that night. None appeared, but could it be possible that she could escape when the Executioners lead her back outside? That could be the case!

Meanwhile, back with the Executioners, the Lead Executioner was running his fingers over the smooth blackjack that was in front of him.

"So… The Most Valuable Player's most prized club eh?" He asked.

"That's right. While patting her down we managed to find that club, so she is pretty much defenseless without it!" one of the Executioners nodded.

"Good work. We need to make sure she can't have access to anything useful!" The Lead Executioner slipped the blackjack in one of his pockets.

"What are you doing with that?" one of the other Executioners asked.

"Oh, well, I'm sure this will be really handy when we torture the Most Valuable Player in the torture plank!" The Lead Executioner replied.

"We are going to execute her using the Torture Plank?" one of the Executioners asked. "But-"

"Of course. A Most Valuable Player certainly deserves one of our most painful ways of torture don't you think?" The Lead Executioner replied back. The Other Executioners nodded.

"Right, yes. Of course." The Executioner realized and slowly nodded, smiling.

The Executioners then walked on, but looked back at the door which Juno was behind in.

"Are you sure that's enough to keep her in? I mean, she is called a Most Valuable Player you know…" one of the Executioners asked.

"I think that's enough to keep her in. Relax! She's going to have the most painful death we can ever give to a bandit that been nicknamed a Most Valuable Player!" The Lead Executioner snickered as he walked on. The Executioner shrugged but joined the other Executioners, with another of the many bridges in the entire prison looming up in the distance.


	10. Backfired

Chapter 9: Backfired

Juno glared at the shut and highly secured locked door. It seemed so thin, so unprotected, but she knew that there were tons of planks and other materials barging it shut. Juno would usually be prepared for these kinds of situations, but with this situation, it seemed pretty impossible to get out of, even when prepared.

Juno got up and tried looking around the door's edges of there were any slight cracks or holes in the sealing, but she found none. The door was barred shut completely, and there wasn't even a keyhole in, so poking a needle through the hole would be practically useless anyways, because there was no keyhole!

Juno never even thought of being prepared until now. Sure, usually whenever she went out to steal gold, she would always bring a needle with her just in case, but this was clearly after an arena battle, and she'd never thought she'd steal some gold straight after the touchdown match.

Besides, she figured Josh would've already been too scared to report her to the Executioners, because she could just go after him and stab him right? Apparently that wasn't the case.

Meanwhile with the Lead Executioner, he was on patrol duty, walking across the countless stone bridges every now and then, only to stop and chat with a few Hunters and Executioners and a few other people, but other than that, he was on strict patrol duty. To even fail his own task would bring such shame.

He was just about to cross another bridge when the same Executioner who was unsure about the barred door keeping Juno in walked up to him.

"I'm having a real bad feeling that the door isn't just enough!" The Executioner sighed.

The Lead Executioner was starting to get fed up. This Executioner really has a problem with questions of repetition. Juno was locked up in one of the most barred places in all of the Maximum Security Prison!

"First of, what makes you so sure of that?" The Lead Executioner asked, breathing out heavily.

"First of, why do you think she has barely said anything to us while we were escorting her?" The Executioner asked.

"Now that's I question that I don't know." The Lead Executioner scratched his chin. "But I can tell you that the door has plenty of security barriers."

"I'm not so sure." The Executioner replied.

"So what are you exactly saying?" The Lead Executioner scowled at the Executioner. "You are telling me that the bandit can get through a door that has been barred shut triple times?"

"Well-" The Executioner began.

"Are you saying that she can get past the thirty iron chains all strung attached across the door?" The Lead Executioner growled.

"But-"

"Are you saying that she can get across the fact that while leaving we installed a tripwire hook so when activated, two sharp pointed axes will swung down and cut her?" The Lead Executioner continued.

"I mean-" The Executioner gulped.

"And I doubt she will make it that far!" The Lead Executioner exclaimed. "Not when there is fifty different locks all attached to the iron chains!"

The Executioner didn't know what to say. That is a lot of security barriers after all. He wasn't even sure how to get through all of them himself!

"I'm not saying that." The Executioner tried reasoning out. "But we might not be taking these security measures quite that enough."

"We have done more than enough." The Lead Executioner growled. "We are receiving new Hunters and Executioners and other well trained guards each day, and they go on a twenty four hour cycle, and have twelve hour shifts daily!"

"That could still not be enough though!" The Executioner exclaimed loudly, trying to create a point. It was quite loud, that a few Executioners stopped their marching nearby to look at them to check if they were all right, then shrugging, before marching on as normal.

"Oh trust me." The Lead Executioner shot a dirty look at the Executioner. "We have over six hundred guards, and don't forget that we are going to torture her tomorrow! What can possibly happen in just one night?"

"I'll tell you what. Her escaping that is." The Executioner gulped.

"What are the chances of that happening?" The Lead Executioner started to walk away.

"I'm sure it's pretty slim, but still…" The Executioner started to follow him.

The Lead Executioner then pointed his axe towards the sky. "We aren't going to let not one single bandit escape this place! Now we can just forget about this mess. She's going to be killed for sure tomorrow, and there is nothing that she can do to stop that!"

The Executioner just sighed.

"Are you sure?" He kept on persisting.

"Yes, I am sure!" The Lead Executioner replied back as he kept on walking.

The Executioner just looked at the Lead Executioner. "You sure are so sure that this place is inescapable!"

"Oh you can count on it. This place is inescapable!"

The Executioner nodded slowly, before walking off to do his own thing. The Lead Executioner looked at the Executioner while he shook his head.

It was early morning, with the sun and the crack of dawn emerging.

For Juno, that was both good news and bad news. She spent almost all night consoling herself that it isn't the end and that she is going to be okay, but lying to herself is the least of what she could do.

It was good news because maybe the Executioners could be careless and provide even the hardest chance for her to escape.

It was also bad news for her, because well…she was going to be executed, guaranteed! Who cannot view execution as bad news?

Juno was across the door, or more of, sitting and leaning her back up against the wall right across from the door, her arms crossed. Her ears later perked up when she heard the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer, until finally, the door slowly creaked open, and the same four Executioners who escorted her here were the same ones standing across her this very instant.

"So, Most Valuable Player, you got any last words you got planned to say while we torture you?" The Lead Executioner snickered.

"I wouldn't count on that." Juno scowled.

The Executioners chuckled in unison as they gestured Juno to walk forward, with their axes all wielded and in place. Even so, Juno couldn't dash tackle pass them without getting hit with at least one of their axes. Juno slowly got up and walked slowly past them, before they followed her, and one of the Executioners, the Lead Executioner was leading and in front of Juno.

The Lead Executioner, Juno, and the three other Executioners behind her walked past some stairs and eventually towards the bridge that was leading outside of the Executioner Prison.

Once they were out, Juno noticed five more Executioners all of a sudden started walking with them, but the Lead Executioner smirked.

"Glad you could make it." He nodded.

"Yeah, Most Valuable Player, like we said, we aren't taking our chances!" one of the Executioners jeered.

Juno rolled her eyes in reply.

They walked further away from the prison, until Juno's eyes widened as she saw what was ahead of her a few minutes later.

Jungle Arena.

"Keep on moving." The Lead Executioner glanced back and smirked evilly again. Juno took a deep breath, looked at the other Executioners, and walked forward.

As Juno and the nine other Executioners walked closer to the river, Juno could see a large wooden like object that was extended from one end of the river to another. It was a bunch of tough looking and firm wooden planks attached together by some rope, and there were some more wooden planks at the edge of the board that was standing up, and there was even more wooden planks attached to that.

With a noose attached to the plank.

"Great." Juno sighed audibly.

Nearby there was a wooden crank that looked like it could be used to turn, which would probably be used for perhaps lowering the wooden plank into the water.

A crowd was watching nearby, which was mostly consisting of a few Goblins, Hunters, some men wearing leather tunics, Barbarians, and a few other people. Josh was around the front row in the middle, not looking amused. How come he didn't find this funny, he didn't know why.

One of the Executioners pulled out a rope from his pocket, and another Executioner grabbed both of Juno's wrists so the Executioner can wrap the rope around the two wrists. Once Juno was escorted to the top of the Torture Plank, six of the Executioners flipped Juno upside-down. Juno was surprised by this, but she wouldn't show it.

With her hands tied up, she didn't know what to do to get out of this, especially when there is a crowd and Executioners around!

Juno felt some more Executioners tie another rope to both of her ankles, so she could make no significant motion with moving her legs and feet. She all of a sudden realized that her boots were touching the top wooden plank, which could only mean one thing.

She was hanging with her feet tied to the top plank upside down.

Josh only sighed. Sure, Juno stabbed him before, and that sure did hurt, but for some reason, he didn't think Juno getting tortured this way was right. He felt that he had to do something…

"So Most Valuable Player! Any last words you would like to say to the crowd?" The Lead Executioner smirked, while casually pointing Juno's club at her.

Juno glared at the crowd, well; she was facing them anyways, so it would be easy to get whatever she wanted to say out to them.

"You seriously think killing me is going to end all of what we bandits do. There is still going to be robbing and stealing all over the place you know." Juno's voice was strangled. She didn't like that, and she didn't like the fact that the Lead Executioner was mocking her with her club. She was mocked and ridiculed before, but not with her own weapon that is.

The Lead Executioner smiled. "Oh, that's right! But we are killing a Most Valuable Player Bandit!" The whole crowd except Josh murmured and nodded in agreement.

"I-I can't take it no more. I have to do what I gotta do." Josh sighed as he said that quietly.

"Now you will see Most Valuable Player that either way, you will either drown or you will be suffocated. One way or another, you cannot escape." One of the Executioners laughed at her.

"I don't care…" Juno thought. If her voice was strangled and sounded terrible enough, what's the point in trying to win herself out of this?

Josh knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath, and gulped.

"I'm going to regret this." He gulped.

Josh quickly backed off past the crowd, until he eventually made it to the back of the crowd. He carefully and quietly snuck over to the back of the Torture Plank and noticed that one of the Executioner's axe was leaning up against the crank.

If he could get that and hopefully scare away the crowd, that could accomplish the first part of his plan. But it isn't like he was going to save Juno or anything like that.

Josh slowly picked up the axe, with both of his hands, and he soon began to realize how heavy it actually was. Well, he was just surprised by the weight of it.

One of the Barbarians in the crowd noticed Josh and looked wide-eyed.

"What's he doing?" he asked, wide-eyed.

The Executioners look back, but Josh was fast at that time. Josh gritted his teeth as he hurled the axe towards the crowd, right in the middle towards them.

"Look out!" The crowd shrieked and exclaimed as the axe came flying towards them, as they started their stampede away. Juno was taken by surprise. Out of the corner of her eye, an axe was thrown towards the crowd, but who?

"You!" The Lead Executioner gasped when he saw Josh.

"I figured I'm the one who will get revenge on her. Not you guys. You guys don't understand." Josh growled.

Juno's hearing was a bit too strangled, so she couldn't even recognize who was saying that.

"Young boy, you have to know that it's our duty to carry out executions! Not you!" one of the Executioners reasoned out angrily. Josh only narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'm not satisfied." Josh growled, feeling not contented enough.

The Executioners looked at the running away crowd, and then back at Josh, before taking out their axes.

"We'll do what we must then." The Lead Executioner didn't look afraid or surprised to be trying to kill a fourteen year old boy. The other Executioners nodded as they took out their axes.

Josh remembered Jack's voice echoing around him.

"Fight back Josh!" Jack's voice echoed around him.

Josh held up his fists in front of him, feeling ready, but his heart pounding so fast, he was sure his adrenaline would burst. Luckily, that wasn't the case.

Four Executioners threw their axes at Josh, while the other Five Executioners quickly ran towards Josh, using their axes as a melee weapon. Josh quickly ducked and jumped off the torture plank and rolled. He looked behind him, and there was already one Executioner jumping towards him, his axe ready to strike.

Josh took a deep breath before jumping back, then ducking a slice to the face, and then punched the Executioner in the chest, and grabbing him forward. He then held a fist in front of his face, and then uppercut him forward.

"Get him!" Josh heard other Executioners rushing towards him. Josh was screaming inside.

Josh quickly bolted around the Torture Plank, before ducking an Executioner's axe throw. Josh quickly jumped onto the Torture Plank and grabbed an Executioner's Axe when he tried to hit his legs with it.

"Josh, Josh, Josh. Do something already!" Josh could hear Jack smiling to him in his mind. Josh clenched his teeth. He would've just grabbed it and threw it at the Executioner, but instead, he yanked it forward, causing the Executioner to get hit on the face with the wooden board. The Executioner's eyes rolled around slowly as he fell down, unconscious, smiling weirdly.

Two More Executioners jumped up on the Torture Plank and tried to swing at Josh's face. Josh widened as he yelped as he ducked down. He then noticed the two Executioners lying down on the board, howling in pain. Looks like they both hit each other in the face with the handle of their axes!

Josh quickly counted the remaining Executioners barging towards him before running over the eastern edge of the Torture Plank.

"Five left to go." He muttered.

One of the Executioners was already on a roll and sprinting towards him, his axe ready to strike.

Josh looked around, but then noticed that there was a plank on the plank board that looked a little wobbly and loose.

"Hey…" Josh realized.

Josh then jumped in the air and landed on the edge of the loose plank, causing the opposite edge of the plank to wham straight into the other Executioner's face. The Executioner stumbled backwards, groaning in pain.

Josh then quickly grabbed the plank and hauled it over him, so it was now facing sideways on his back. Josh felt himself smile smugly slightly to himself. He was actually getting the hang of this. He didn't know why he was feeling good about this though. He was fighting on a drastic cause!

Juno on the other hand could barely see what was going on. She tried to turn backwards, but the rope keeping her secured in place made things clearly almost impossible for her.

Two Executioners bolted towards him, and Josh in reply ran forward and ducked forward, before slamming the wooden plank on both of their faces.

"Gah!" They exclaimed in pain as they toppled sideways on the plank board, with a thud.

All of a sudden, an axe out of nowhere flew towards Josh, and Josh on impulse jumped back, only to find his wooden plank like weapon cut apart. He groaned in frustration.

"Oh no!" he sighed.

All of a sudden, he was kicked from behind from an Executioner, and Josh yelped in surprise. Josh quickly jerked around and ducked a slice to the forehead, before punching forward. The Executioner blocked it and punched forward. Josh grabbed the Executioner's fist but then was swung backwards. Josh quickly kicked the Executioner with both of his feet while he was on the floor and successfully managed to fend him away.

"I just want to know…what you are doing?!" The Lead Executioner muttered under his breath as he clenched his axe and rushed forward towards the commotion, jumping up from the ground.

All in fast motion, Josh quickly ducked and jumped back as the Executioner kept on making swift moves to the face, at Josh kept on moving out of the way, even backing up against the vertical wooden plank, and when the Executioner tried to slice at him again, Josh side-step jumped out of the way, the axe slashing at the wooden plank that was pointing upwards, making a large crack on it, splintering it severely. Josh then jumped up and held onto the top wooden plank, using it like a monkey bar.

He then swung off the monkey bar like plank and kicked forward at the Executioner, before getting kicked back again by surprise. Josh and the Executioner all of a sudden kicked each other's foot at once, and by then, it started to drag on.

Josh and the Executioner were both kicking each other's leg repeatedly at this point, looking exasperated as they looked at each other. Finally, after what seemed like minutes after doing this, when it was just seconds, Josh finally broke away, before lashing out straight at the Executioner with a fake fist to the face.

The Executioner fell for it, as he covered his face with his hands. When he didn't feel anything, he slowly peeked, and Josh used that opportunity to punch him, the Executioner shouting in pain. Josh all of a sudden felt another kick to the back as he was sent flying forward and rolled nearly off the Torture Plank.

"I'm surprised you actually managed to get this far." The Lead Executioner growled at Josh. "You have done enough trouble to get your sentence to our prison about a mile long!"

"Yeah? Well it's too bad, because you are not gonna see me there when the sentence is read." Josh glared at the Lead Executioner.

"You are right. That's because your time is up." The Lead Executioner quickly cut the rope that was just above Juno's boots.

Juno's eyes widened as she managed to gulp in a deep breath before plunging into the water, both of her hands and both of her legs still tied up. Then the Lead Executioner hurled his axe straight towards Josh's stomach.

Josh took a deep breath. Betraying the people who healed him and helping someone who stabbed him? What in the realm was he thinking about?

Josh threw himself sideways, barely avoided the axe as it barely avoided his left arm. The Lead Executioner quickly ran towards him landing a series of vicious punches to Josh himself. Josh couldn't even dodge the punches, as a punch of the face was packed with so many force, that Josh was sent sliding of the Torture Plank and fell on the ground.

The Lead Executioner caught his axe with his right hand and his mouth curved an evil smile.

"Now it's time for me to finish this!" He exclaimed as he jumped in the air, as he held his axe over his head with both of his hands, ready to strike.

Josh shouted in fear, as he all of a sudden realized something. The Torture Plank had a few small posts that were inches above the ground, so the Torture Board wasn't completely on the ground.

Josh gulped. He then dove straight under the Torture Plank, and the Executioner slammed down on the ground, and was just about to look under when he was met with a punch to the face.

"OOF!" He exclaimed in pain.

He stumbled backwards very briefly and managed to turn himself around in the opposite direction. Josh licked his lips as he reached forward and pushed the Executioner's legs forward, since he was not in full stance. The Lead Executioner's eyes widened as he fell backwards, and crashed his head against the edge of the wooden plank, and lay still.

"I can't believe it." Josh breathed out a sigh, but his mouth was still open, and the adrenaline was shooting all-around of his body. Josh then remembered. The Lead Executioner had done the revenge thing himself! Josh didn't!

Josh crawled out of the Torture Plank and took a deep breath. He didn't like water, and very much didn't want to be around it. But he knew if he wanted to get revenge personally, he was going to have to take drastic measures. Josh took another deep breath as he glared at the clear green like Jungle water. He breathed in one more time before diving in.

Seconds into the fact that Josh was in the water, he remembered a few short swimming lessons that his brother Jack told him. Mostly about kicking and paddling, and how to float. Josh hoped he could put those lessons to good use.

It was just a few tens of seconds of complete silence outside the river.

Josh arose to the surface after it seemed like minutes, carrying with him Juno, who was unconscious. Josh managed to set Juno down near the Torture Plank, before finally stumbling and wiping out near the Torture Plank too, breathing out heavily.

Josh's mind was thinking that if maybe he took revenge on Juno personally, then it would be the cause of satisfying him, but that backfired apparently, due to the fact that he was gasping for breath. He didn't want to drown, but at the same time he didn't want to keep on living on the fact that the Lead Executioner took revenge on Juno.

It was just on how his mind worked out.

Josh could barely open his eyes as he took in what he had just done. He had done the opposite of what he was planning to do!

Josh slowly raised his left arm and clenched his left hand into a fist, before trying to reach Juno, but failed. He sighed, exhausted as he fell unconscious himself.

Juno opened her eyes a few seconds later, before stumbling forward before the pain kicked in, and started to throw up water from the prolonged dip she received. She fell to her knees and she kept on coughing out water, and taking in more oxygen, taking a short breather.

Juno looked down at her legs. The ropes holding her hands and her legs in place were gone. Maybe the water must've ripped them apart or something or someone.

Juno turned around. Josh was laying down face first, breathing out heavily.

"There's no way he could've…" Juno thought to herself. She shook her head.

She turned to walk away, but turned around again, looking at Josh, helpless. Soon, if the Executioners regained consciousness, now Josh would be the one on the Torture Plank.

She resisted the feeling to throw up, knowing that she did not have the time to do so.

She fought her mind with what she was gonna do, before finally, rolling her eyes as she walked over and grabbed Josh's sides, carrying him over her shoulder. She was extremely strong due to all that fighting in the arena, so it was no sweat, but she could feel her lungs starting to burn from watery overload.

Juno noticed the Lead Executioner slowly getting up and rubbing his forehead and picking up his axe. Juno glared at the other Executioners before dashing away carrying Josh on her shoulders, into the Jungle, but not before grabbing her blackjack on the way out.

She soon disappeared with Josh from sight after that.


	11. Departure

Chapter 10: Departure

Juno's vision was getting more blurry by the second she was dashing away. Carrying Josh on her shoulders made it even harder to endure the pain. Once when she leaped over a bush, she nearly fell over, but she was trained for these kinds of obstacles in these kinds of situation.

Meanwhile at the Torture Plank, the Lead Executioner was finally conscious, and he rested his back up against the wooden plank that knocked him out, and he shook out the pain from his head.

"What just happened?" He muttered out loud.

The Lead Executioner blinked for a few more seconds before looking around. The rest of the Executioners were already still on the ground, some were rubbing their backs or their forehead, while others started retrieving their silver looking axes.

"Where's that kid?" he heard one of the Executioners ask angrily in the air as he finally regained strength that quickly enough to pick up his axe.

There was a murmur around the nine Executioners as they gathered around the Torture Plank.

"I can't find him anywhere!"

"He's going to pay for this!"

"I can't wait until it's time for us to torture him!"

Those were just a few of the murmurs of anger among the nine Executioners. The Lead Executioner then noticed something. It looked like watery footprints of boots.

"Hey… look at this!" He motioned the other Executioners to give their full attention on him. The other Executioners stopped murmuring to turn and see the footprints.

"Of course! That's must've been where they made their escape!" One of the executioners exclaimed.

The rest of the other executioners looked at him.

"I think that's pretty obvious for us to know." One of the Executioners rolled his eyes.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get after them before we completely lose them!" The Lead Executioner gestured urgently the other Executioners to follow him. Without turning back again, the Lead Executioner ran after and followed the footprints, only hearing the sounds of the other Executioners following him close behind.

Meanwhile with Juno and Josh, Juno had finally reached her hideout by that point. She managed use enough strength to look back behind her, and could see no one in sight.

She turned back towards the hideout and quickly managed to open the door, her hands fumbling on the knob. She could see a golden chain attached to a golden lock nearby with a gem like keyhole nearby attached to the door, so she dropped Josh to the floor, fumbled on the golden chain lock, and locked the door.

She then grabbed Josh's wrists and started to drag him towards the basement, where she would've gone anyways. Josh could barely make out everything that was around him, as the only thing he could make out from his vision was some type of ceiling, and he could feel his back rubbing up against a rough surface.

Juno gripped the handle on the trapdoor to the basement and pulled it upwards, and then shoved Josh down. She then went inside the basement too, grabbing the trapdoor's handle from below to ensure that no followers could manage to find them.

It was dark and very chilly in the basement, and Juno's eyesight was worsening and getting more weaker by the second. She had enough strength to drag Josh over to one side of the basement, which was to the right of the entrance, before stumbling to the other end of the basement, which was the left side.

She leaned her back against the wall and slumped down to the ground, later falling unconscious herself.

Josh didn't know what to expect.

The Executioners were still running through the forest, finding nothing in sight but some Jungle Trees and leaves.

It was after a few minutes of running did the Executioners stop to catch their breath.

"Great. We lost them!" The Lead Executioner growled, slapping the side of the blade of his axe, causing a cringing noise to be heard among the Executioners.

"That's not the least of our worries." One of the Executioners groaned. "I can't seem to find anymore footprints!"

"Neither can I!" Another Executioner stated.

"Same here!"

"Can't seem to find any footprints too!"

The Executioner growled while hearing those negative remarks. Those were remarks he was not proud and amused of.

"Let's just go back." The Lead Executioner decided.

"Go back?" A few of the Executioners said in unison.

"Yeah. We ought to find their locations and maybe send off a Flying Machine or two." The Lead Executioner explained.

"But what if that fails?" An Executioner asked.

The Lead Executioner turned towards him.

"We just can't fail."

With that, the Lead Executioner stormed off back towards the Maximum Security Prison, leaving the other Executioners behind. The Executioners looked at each other, shrugged, and then followed him.

Josh opened his eyes a few minutes later. He could definitely see everything more clearly, but it still looked a bit dark to him.

"Where the heck am I?" Josh groaned as he sat up from the hard wall he was slumped up against earlier.

He felt a bit of pain from both of his sides for some strange reason. Maybe roughness was applied to both of them earlier. He also felt slightly wet around him, dripping water around his sides. Someone wet must've handled him that roughly!

Josh shook his head, and then he got slowly got up, and looked around the dark room, which was cluttered mainly on the sides and the corners of the room.

Judging by the way this room looked, Josh assumed it was some sort of cellar or basement because of the barrels around the corners, and a couple of bags that were nearly overfilling with shiny gold. There were also a couple of other things strewn about within the area of the basement or cellar like room.

Josh minimized the chance of walking into something unexpectedly by getting up and walking slowly around the room, making sure that he was completely aware of his surroundings.

"Oh man… I really want some of that…" Josh walked slowly towards the bags of gold that were lined up and stacked upon each other. He was tempted to take a few to fill up his pockets.

But he figured whoever it was in here, they'd sure not be amused and go after him, and he'd already had enough people chasing him.

Josh noticed a trapdoor after a few more seconds of looking around in this dark room, and he was relieved. He was kind of scared of being in a dark, desolated room, alone.

Just as Josh was about to go up towards the trapdoor, he noticed a shadow slumping up against the wall. Josh gulped.

"What do I do…what do I do?!" he whispered to himself.

Josh was tempted to just leave and exit the basement, but at the same time, he was fairly curious. He did want to find out who else was inside the basement with him too.

Josh took a deep breath, and walked even closer, noticing that the shadow figured whore a hood.

Josh clenched his teeth and braced for whatever was going to come at him, but when he looked closer again, his mouth opened wide.

He was shocked.

It was the Most Valuable Player? Who out of all the other people in the realm, and it somehow was her?

"No, no, no. This can't be happening…" Josh shook his head, rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't.

"How did she get here?" Josh was still shocked at what he was seeing.

Juno was still unconscious with her eyes closed, but she was starting to breathe more normally, instead of hard and rough.

Josh tried hard to remember if he could put the puzzle pieces together.

He was nearly unconscious right after he "saved" the Most Valuable Player, but he could remember himself getting picked up roughly by someone, and seeing green grass before his vision nearly faded out.

"Could she have brought me here…?" Josh knew that was possible, but he still wasn't sure if he could be certain on that.

Josh knelt down on one knee in front of Juno. He wasn't sure what to expect next, but whatever it was, he hoped it wouldn't be another stab and a kick to the chest.

"Um...hello?" Josh asked.

No answer.

"Are you awake? Um... hellooooooo?" Josh tried again, imitating his mother's voice tone. He chuckled to himself after he said that.

Josh shook Juno's shoulders he tried a few more times to wake her up.

"Uh… you awake?" Josh sighed.

Josh waited and waited and waited. It was only a few seconds in reality, but in his mind, it felt like long dragging minutes.

Josh got up and looked around the basement some more, but this time he thought about it over.

If she purposely brought him here, why? Was it some kind of trick on him?

She could've known that he could leave the basement and maybe set some kind of trap for him to get into. Or…even worser, maybe they were both in an executioner jail like basement.

But wait… something did not seem right here. If this was an Executioner Jail, why would there be gold bags around?

Josh then looked back at Juno. This was definitely her basement. She always had a mind to go after gold. And this was her hidden stash!

Josh didn't know what to do. He thought for a few more seconds and sighed, when he came to his decision.

"I guess I'm just gonna have to wait it out until I find out what she's gonna do…"

With that, Josh went over and sat down against the wall and waited, crossing his arms. His eyes started to droop though, and he could feel a dozing feeling throughout himself.

Juno didn't know what happened a few minutes later.

But when she looked around, she put it all together and started to remember, but Josh wasn't across the room though as she remembered him being there.

Juno narrowed her eyes for a split second before looking to her left, and her eyes widened.

Josh was for some reason, sleeping up against the wall next to her!

"I didn't remember leaving him there…" she mumbled to herself.

She felt of a hint of embarrassment inside of her for a few seconds before she shook it away. She got up and knew where she was headed next. The trapdoor.

She felt for some strange reason that Josh was the type of person who wouldn't give into temptations and besides, why bother?

After she left the basement, she closed the trapdoor from below her, only to carelessly close it too hard, making a loud thump. She ignored it and peeked out of the window next to the front door. No one seems to be around.

She opened the chain lock again and slowly exited the hideout.

Later, it was Josh's turn to wake up. He didn't know how long time passed since he dozed off for a second time in a row, but when he looked around, Juno wasn't there.

"Hm. Why isn't she around?" Josh said out loud to himself. He scratched his head, confused as he looked around some more, before heading back up the trapdoor too, completely forgetting about all the bags of gold that was overflowing that he was about to leave behind, and forgetting the fact that he thought this could be a bait for falling into some traps.

As he left the trapdoor behind closed, and noticed a golden chain lock dangling from the top edge of the front door.

He went over to the front window and checked out what was going on. There was nearly complete silence between the jungle trees all grouped around one another.

Josh felt unprepared without having his own weapon, but he knew he was wanted in Jungle Arena anyways. Maybe not having a weapon could be great in disguising himself as a random citizen!

Josh took a deep breath.

"I'm gonna regret this…" he groaned to himself.

He stepped out of the front door and looked around; making sure no one was watching him. There wasn't any sight of not even a single goblin.

He then ran off into the forest in a random direction he chose, hoping he would somehow manage to end off in another place, or even better, another arena.


	12. Dodgeball Discovery

Chapter 11: Dodgeball Discovery

Josh tried to ignore the pain from his lungs and his legs as he ran deeper into the jungle. He was running in the jungle for more than a few minutes, and he felt like his legs could barely have so much energy in them anyways.

Apart from the very short minute nap he had taken a Juno's hideout earlier; he barely slept just a few hours in the jungle.

Last night, he managed to find a tree that looked like it had the capacity of enough thick leaves, and he was glad that he had at least enough energy to climb up the branches that were there to help him get up. The first branch wasn't as tall as the other branch he used to get up to Juno's hideout's second floor, but at least he was able to finally get up to the top of the tree and sleep within the leaves.

It was really, not the tallest tree in Jungle Arena. Jungle Arena has taller trees than the one Josh was in, but at least he found one that was more of his size for climbing.

The tree had some other problems though.

First of all, the tree's branches were not wide enough to sustain Josh's weight, but that's of course because they were thinner than his own legs!

So when Josh rested his legs on them, they made a small but audible crack sound, and Josh would tense up every time he heard the crack, and check down on his legs.

The branches seemed not that much harmed, but that stress kept him up for nearly an hour.

Then there were the falling leaves. Whenever Josh was breathing heavily, mostly because of from the stress from all that cracking sound from the branches underneath his legs, and a leaf would land on top of his nose, making it very hard to breath.

Josh was lazy at the time, so he tried to blow it out with his mouth, but nothing happened. Josh tried to blow it out again, and the leaf would move slightly up in the air but then float back down.

Josh growled after that and blew it out as hard as he could, and thankfully the leaf managed to float away. The only problem was that Josh's eyes were now wide awake because he put some energy and force behind that blow.

The other problem Josh had was the last time he had eaten. His stomach grumbled all night, waiting for some food, but Josh would only sigh.

Josh didn't even think about eating anything before he finally managed to sleep, very late in the night, as he was sure he slept past midnight.

And what happened when Josh groggily managed to wake up? Well, his stomach started to grumble again, and Josh tried his best to ignore it, though he was really hoping he could be able to get some breakfast soon. Now, the only problem was where he could get some food to fill up his stomach and stop its rumbling.

Josh sighed again as he thought of that rumbling. He slowed down his pace as he rested his right hand against a nearby tree trunk, panting heavily. He looked around him. There was just the samey pattern of jungle trees, and a couple of goblin snickers from about a couple of trees away, not interested in him.

Josh tried to look at where the sun was rising. The tallest jungle trees in that area had leaves blocking the way, but he was able to see a bit of the sunlight streaming in.

"I have to keep going." Josh panted slowly.

Josh took a deep breath, and continued running, or more of by his pace, jogging through the forest, but trying to keep him as quiet as possible. The last thing he need is to have him on the torture stake.

While running, he thought about everything that just happened around about nearly an hour or so ago.

When he saw the Most Valuable Player there, what was he thinking? He should've taken revenge on her when she was completely and defenseless, and more of, unconscious in front of him. Why did he just wait for her on what to do next?

He tried to be fair and reason out with himself. So say he did remember to take revenge on Juno himself personally. How was he going to do the revenge?

Now Josh blamed himself for not taking a good enough look around the basement or cellar like room.

Josh could've found maybe a club or even better, maybe even a spare dagger! He'd feel much better if he returned the same favor he got. However, there was something that wasn't right…

"Why don't I have the guts to do so?" He asked himself.

Because he doesn't and won't ever fight girls? No. That was completely insane! It's just… well… he doesn't know what to do when he ever encounters a situation like that. Seldom does that ever happen to him.

Josh stopped jogging. He tried to conserve energy by running at a slower pace, but that still didn't help him that much, but at least it helped him move further than he would've when running.

All of a sudden, just as he felt like he couldn't jog or let alone run even further, he saw something yellowish tannish and sandy meters ahead of him.

"Is that…?" Josh gasped.

Josh moved forward, completely ignoring all the pain erupting from his lungs.

Josh gasped when he looked again. It was…

"Sand!" Josh smiled. He had made it out of Jungle Arena, and was now in a new mysterious place, but what was it?

Josh finally crossed the border of the grass from Jungle Arena, and the sand, and as he walked out, he took in a deep of the tropical air hitting him.

From where he could see, there was a nearby boardwalk from him that was extended further north of him, and there were a few people walking around there. He could see the shorelines from there, which seemed pretty close, even though it was only a few hundred meters away.

Josh started walking forward, starting to admire everything around him. This place definitely looked more peaceful in Jungle Arena. For himself being in Jungle Arena, you'd always feel like someone was watching behind you, and you'd always need to be fully aware at all times, even at the unexpected.

With the tropical air blowing everywhere around him, and with almost everyone else smiling, you'd feel welcome to this new place yourself.

Josh could feel the sand underneath his shoes, which wasn't surprising, considering how his shoes were pretty worn out. His shoes were slightly tattered, still dripping of water and there were black spots of soot on the edges of them, but they were small, so it wouldn't be that much of a bother.

Josh could see a few surfers out early paddling into the water, and some were riding their surfboards against some waves in the sun that was rising in the horizon.

Josh didn't even know what to do himself. He saw many activities that were ranging in different aspect.

Josh could only walk on the boardwalk himself and just look at what everyone was doing. Maybe he could find an activity that seemed familiar or very appealing and enjoyable to himself.

Josh decided that it wouldn't really matter what activity he could participate in, since he'd have a chance to do multiple activities for the day. It may not get him very far in his adventure, but at least he could have some fun for a while.

Some activities Josh went by looked particularly very amusing to him.

There was a cannon nearby with a small crowd around it, and Josh later found out that the point of the game was to get yourself fired into the cannon, and try to land the middle of the fluffy target in the ocean nearby. Josh looked over at the green and white fluffy target. It was floating roughly in the waters, and he was about to walk on when he heard a cannon fire. He looked back behind him and then at the sky. He could see a shadowy figure shouting with excitement in the air, looking like he was flying for real with his arms stretched out like wings.

Josh then gritted his teeth and smiled nervously as he saw the figure splash, meters off of even the white, outer part of the target. He heard the crowd saying a bunch of "Aw…"

Josh figured that he already had enough time out in the water for even one day, so he sighed and walked on. It looked so fun though, and he'd tried it if he first of all, knew how to swim, and second of all, how to tough up the loudest of the cannon fire ringing around his ears.

He noticed nearby some stairs leading up on a hill, and went he went up the stairs, he could see a very small looking stadium that had chairs all around, and the stadium was in a circular shape. There was a walkway leading towards the entrance, but one look and Josh would just chuckle nervously.

They were watching a swordplay match, where in the center of the stadium, in a small circle like island in front of the bleachers, were two people fighting with swords, one sword was blue, and one was red. The swords were made out of some kind of material that Josh guessed prevented any injuries, and the two combatants were wearing protected matching colored armor anyways.

The only problem Josh found in the swordplay stadium was that there was a big tank of water underneath the circular island, so he'd assume that if one combatant managed to knock off the other combatant, that other combatant would fall off the edge into the water.

Josh shook his head in dismay and walked away, just after he watched from a distance the blue combatant managing to hit the red combatant's legs, making him fall off the edge and make a splash in the tank of water.

Josh walked for a few more seconds, before finally coming across another big tank of water, with another small crowd gathered around it. The big tank of water had a small hole dripping out of it that looked like its water was from the ocean nearby. There was a big massive target in the middle, and the crowd had big slingshot in front of them. The slingshot was made out of light wood and was taller than most of them, standing at about a couple meters high. There was about nine or so people all sitting on top of a platform on the big tank of water that was kept, and there was a giant target underneath them. All of them showed faces that were both nervous and excited at the exact same time.

"Ready… Dunk-fire!" one of the crowd members shouted as two of the crowd members pulled back a ball wrapped up in vines and palm tree leaves and a bunch of other stuff, at the giant target, which was obviously a couple tens of meters away.

The wrapped up ball shot through the air and slammed exactly in the center of the target, and the members up on the plank shouted or screamed happily as they went sent down towards the big tank of water.

"So…this is basically like a jumbo sized dunk tank, but like…really jumbo!" Josh smirked, but shook his head. "I think I'll pass on that one again too."

After Josh walked on some more, he kept on thinking to himself.

Is he really just going to pass everything that included water in it?

Josh then heard a commotion going on. Josh noticed a small floating island near the shorelines. It seemed distant, but he could see what was going on. In fact, there was a dock nearby with some people watching what was going on in the small floating island in the water, so since there were only a few people, it wasn't hard for Josh to find a place to watch.

There were four combatants this time instead of two, and they weren't wielding any of those plastic like swords in the swordplay stadium. Rather, they wear wearing rubbery like rings all around them. Each person had three rings around them, all wrapped up perfectly around starting from their hips to their chests.

"Sumo Wrestling." Josh looked wide-eyed, amused.

Josh chuckled as he saw the Blue Sumo Wrestler ram into the Yellow Sumo Wrestler, the Wrestler tumbling into the water. The Red Sumo Wrestler rammed towards the Green Sumo Wrestler, but the Green Sumo Wrestler managed to jump away, snickering. Josh turned away, sighing.

"The last thing I need is a bunch of a people slamming the heck out of me into the water." Josh smirked, before walking on.

He passed many more fun looking stuff on the beach, but he was really hoping he could find something that suited his personality.

He was just about to reluctantly go back and chose one of the games that included the least amount of water, when he heard a nearby conversation between some teenagers, six of them actually.

They were all in uniform, wearing what looked like to be rainbow like designs, but mostly the primary colors were blue, green, and a few of the seven colors on the uniform.

He looked towards them and noticed four teenagers all talking together near a rectangular arena that had lines cut out and bleachers. The arena had no gates, only lines cut out, and the bleachers were wooden like. Josh went close to hear some more. He hoped that wouldn't count as eavesdropping, or worse, he might antagonize them.

This looked like some sort of game.

"Well we can't find any substitutes for our team! What do you suggest we do then?" one of the teenagers asked.

One of the teenagers was rubbing his right leg, limping around next to them.

"We can't just forfeit the match can we?" another of the teenagers sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm sorry." The limping teenager sighed. "I guess it's my fault."

Meanwhile, there was another team on the other side of the court like arena, snickering with his six other players, which were teenagers on his team. They were all wearing uniforms of red and orange, the symbol of a flame on them.

"So! Care to quit and chicken out against our unstoppable team?" said what looked like to be the leader of them.

The other teenagers snickered. The six other teenagers sighed.

"I guess we have to." Said what looked like to be the team captain of the teens. "It's no use. Diego's right leg is injured, and if we don't have enough players, it's an automatic defeat."

Josh's eyes widened as he breathed out. This game didn't look like it had any water in it! Now finally! He found something that met his standards. Josh took a deep breath.

"I hope I don't regret this." He thought to himself.

Josh took another deep breath and slowly walked up to the group of six teenagers.

"Um guys… I could be a substitute for him if you want..." he slowly said.

The group of teenagers turned towards him.

"You know how to play Dodgeball?" said the teenager that looked like the Team Captain.

Josh's eyes widened, surprised, and excited.

"Are you kidding me? That's my kinda sport!" Josh exclaimed.

All of the other teenagers looked at each other.

"Why can't we just let him play for me?" Diego smiled nervously.

The teenagers were desperate though.

"You're in!" the teenagers nodded. The other team looked in disbelief.

Diego, the injured Dodgeball player, quickly removed his uniform, so now he was wearing a white shirt, and another short of pants. Josh looked at his pants, confused.

"Don't ask." Diego chuckled.

Josh grabbed the uniform, and went off to change. Minutes later, he was wearing a uniform of rainbow colors, with the number ten on it.

"Oh man! I look awesome!" Josh exclaimed excitedly as he rushed to join his team.

"Pfft! Big deal losers!" the other team rolled their eyes.

"Before we start, I guess we have to introduce our names to you first so you don't get too confused." The Team Captain said.

"Oh, right!" one of the Dodgeballers nodded. "My name is Maui." He looked about fourteen or fifteen, with brown hair and blue eyes. His Uniform Number was Twenty.

"The name is Kai." The Second of the Dodgeballers said to Josh. He had black hair and had blue eyes. And he looked like the stereotypical teenager you'd find someplace tropical. His uniform number was Three.

"My name is Li." The Third of the Dodgeballers nodded. He had black hair and black eyes. Josh nodded back. Li's stomach may be the widest out of all the Dodgeballers on the team, but at least he was sure Li was decent at throwing and moreover, dodging. His uniform number was Fifty One.

The Fourth of the Dodgeballers glared at Josh, before raising his fist in a fist bump to Josh. Josh fist bumped him in reply. He had black hair and green eyes. He looked very competitive judging by the way his face looked. His uniform number was Nine.

"Chang is the name." He said. "You can do good out there, I'm sure."

"Thanks!" Josh smiled.

"And I am Diego." Said the Fifth Dodgeballer, who finally was able to limp around in place. "We are greatly honored for you volunteering to be on our team."

"No problem." Josh nodded.

"And finally, my name is David." Said the Sixth and the Last Dodgeballer. He had black hair and black eyes, and his uniform number was Twenty Five. "May you show your best effort out there."

"Oh, I will!" Josh smirked.

"Alright Brody! We're ready! Bring it on!" Kai exclaimed.

"Alright everyone, let's do this!" said the Team Captain and the teenager whom Josh guessed Kai exclaimed too.

Brody's uniform number was Eighty, and he had striking black hair that was curved spiky like, and he had black eyes. The rest of his teammate numbers were Sixty, Ninety Four, Twelve, Forty, and Two.

The referee, who looked like a Goblin wearing the same kind of uniform that, looked like the same in the stadium Josh went with Josh earlier, and he was carrying Six round Coconuts with him, but was throwing them down and aligning them perfectly at the centerline. Now David's team had their feet touching the outer line, and Brody's team doing the same.

"The Coconuts are the Dodgeballs?" Josh gasped.

"Right…forgot to tell you about that. Seriously, it's gonna hurt if you get hit by it." Maui smirked.

"So it would be best if you'd try your best to dodge the coconuts." Li added.

"You don't have to say that again!" Josh gulped.

After a few more seconds of tense silence, with the bleachers half filled up, the referee goblin looked at both teams.

"Furious Flamers ready?" The Goblin Referee shouted.

"Get ready to be roasted and toasted!" Brody's team all exclaimed in unison to David's team.

"Dodgeball Dragons ready?" The Referee shouted.

"It's time to strike Primetime!" everyone but Josh exclaimed. Josh looked around him and chuckled.

The Referee looked around some more before all of a sudden, saying, "Dodgeball!"

With that, Brody and David's team started running forward to pick up the coconuts placed in the center field.

Josh held back and tried out his technique, where he'd stay near the back and any stray balls moving towards him, he'd pick them up.

Maui quickly threw a coconut at Number Sixty right in the leg, and Number Sixty toppled over, howling in pain.

"I'll get you next time!" Number Sixty growled at Maui as he limped over to the bench queue.

Josh quickly ducked a coconut thrown towards him and all of a sudden noticed a coconut just a few feet away from him. He quickly ran towards it, but just as he picked it up and aimed, he got hit in the left arm with a coconut.

"YOW!" Josh exclaimed in surprise and pain as he twisted around and fell on the sand.

"Yeah! Got him!" Number Two exclaimed.

After Josh made his way towards the bench queue, he could only watch and hope someone would catch a coconut, but boy, that hurt!

It was a pretty close game a few minutes later.

There were three members of the Dodgeball Dragons, and two members of the Furious Flamers. The remaining players in the game were Brody, Number Forty, Chang, Kai, and Li.

Maui was in the front of the line, and Josh was behind him, and David was behind Josh. Also, Number Twelve was in the Front of the Line, and then Number Sixty.

Chang quickly ducked a coconut thrown to the face, and then threw with his left hand towards Number Forty. Number Forty jumped over it, and then threw another coconut at Chang.

"Ugh." Chang muttered to himself as he jumped and twisted to the right away. Li then threw another coconut after that, nearly hitting Brody.

"Get a load of the fire Chang!" Brody snickered as he picked up a coconut from the ground, Number Forty doing the same, throwing the coconuts towards Chang.

"Watch it!" Kai exclaimed.

Chang quickly jumped away from the first coconut, but then got hit in the right arm with the second.

"Out! You're out, Ha!" Brody laughed. Chang just growled at him angrily and shot him a glare, returning to the back of the queue.

Number Forty snickered before throwing a coconut towards Brody, and then running over forward to pick up another one.

Brody jumped in the air forwards and through another one at Kai.

"Kai, watch out!" Li exclaimed.

Li quickly picked up a coconut and threw it at the coconut that was thrown towards Kai, colliding on it and successfully knocking it away.

"Nice one!" Kai picked up a coconut and hurled it towards Number Forty's face. It whacked him in the face and the coconut was sent flying in the air.

"Ow…hey get that!" Number Forty exclaimed.

Brody quickly jumped and caught the coconut with both of his hands.

"Shoot!" Kai angrily exclaimed as he made his way to the back of the team's queue.

Li backed off, with only one coconut left the team's side, and it was up near the front.

"Last one, let's go!" Brody exclaimed as he threw a coconut towards Li. Li's eyes widened but he managed to slide forward and duck it. Number Twelve ran in and grabbed a coconut beside him.

"That was close!" Li shook his head as he noticed another coconut flying towards him. He managed to catch it briefly, and Maui quickly ran in.

"My mistake." Number Forty chuckled nervously.

"Augh. Come on, we got this!" Brody exclaimed.

Maui quickly ran for the coconut towards the middle, but just as he did, he quickly threw it at Brody. Brody was aware of it, and managed to catch it.

Maui shook his head in disappointment as he walked to the back of the line, again. "So much for being out in the field for a few seconds."

With that, Number Twelve got into the game, and Brody quickly threw him a coconut, before picking up his own.

"Get ready to feel the burn!" Brody snickered as he aimed towards Li again and this time threw the coconut at the same time Number Twelve through his coconut.

"Double Shot." David muttered.

"Whoa!" Li managed to catch one of the coconuts, but the second one bounced off his shoulder. "Josh, get it!"

Josh sprinted in and dived towards the coconut that was in the air.

"Come on…" Josh said as it seemed in slow motion, him diving for the coconut.

Josh felt a smile across his face as he felt the coconut land both of his hands, as it nearly touched the ground.

"Yeah, nice one Josh!" David, Kai, Maui, Diego, and Chang exclaimed to Josh, some of them jumping up from the bleachers in excitement.

Li picked up a nearby coconut while jumping over a coconut thrown to the legs, and tossed it towards Josh.

"Let's go!"

"I'm ready!" Josh smirked.

Li blocked a coconut thrown to the face and then threw his coconut towards Brody. Brody ducked with ease, and then number Sixty threw it towards Li. Li smirked and ducked. All of a sudden, his coconut was Josh who jumped up in the air and was completely behind Li, catching the ball.

"I can't believe it!" Brody was dumbfounded and astonished.

It turns out, Li had let in on Josh on a little technique that could work, and he just had to do two simple things. One, to let go of the coconut he was holding, and two, to know when to time your jump. Li passed Josh the coconut just to let the Furious Flamers think Josh was going to throw.

"Yes!" Josh barely felt himself this happy before.

The crowds in the bleachers were now cheering on, as some of them started getting really excited now.

Brody picked up a coconut and held it in front of him. Meanwhile, David sprinted in and grabbed a coconut, besides Josh. Soon in a matter of short seconds, Li had a coconut, Josh had a coconut, and David had a coconut.

Brody glared at them angrily.

"Are you ready Josh?" David asked.

"I'm ready, what about you Li?" Josh asked.

"Triple Primetime is here!" Li smirked.

With that, it looked like in slow motion, Josh, Li, and David all threw their coconut dodgeballs towards Brody. Brody closed his eyes and did his best to block them all with just one coconut, but failed.

"AHOOF!" Brody exclaimed as he fell backwards and landed on the sand. The crowd went crazy and the rest of the Dodgeball Dragons gathered around David, Li, and Josh.

"You were awesome out there Josh!" Kai excitedly said.

"I'd say you were probably one of the best substitutes for the team Josh." Diego smiled.

"Yeah…" Josh was at a loss for words. "Aw… well, Dodgeball is just one of my favorite sports. I just was fond of it the second I say a real life game."

Josh knew he wanted to be a ninja, but ever since he watched a real professional Dodgeball game with his family, if he could combine Dodgeball skills and with ninja skills? That was something Josh always wanted.

After Josh gave back Diego his uniform, and the crowd manage to leave, Brody and his team were gathered around, shooting angry glares at the Dodgeball Dragons.

"So. That kid over there managed to defeat us huh?" Brody murmured.

"Brody, you think you should pay that kid a short beating first?" Number Sixty asked.

"Next time I see him, he's gonna need to get an Ice Pack, because he's gonna face the fury of my flames!" Brody sneered towards the team.

"Just don't manage to burn your pants." Number Ninety Four giggled.

"Oh shut up Nick." Brody rolled her eyes.

"You know, you should really substitute for our team some other time whenever we need it!" David said to Josh as they and the rest of the team walked away together.

"Well… I mean, I guess." Josh smiled a bit. "I'm just so new to this arena and I don't know everything yet."

"Hey. Well welcome to Tropical Arena!" David patted Josh on the back.

"Tropical Arena?" Josh asked.

"Yeah you know. It's also been nicknamed the Paradise of Clash Royale. We, Jungle Arena and a few other Arenas are competing for that title." Li chuckled.

Thinking of Jungle Arena just made Josh think of how long he has been without food. His stomach realized and started to grumble. Josh looked down and embarrassingly smiled.

"Oops. Looks like I have to fill up my stomach first." Josh nervously said.

"Hey! We were just about to eat at my Uncle's Dodgeball Drinkery!" David exclaimed.

"Drinkery?" Josh giggled at that word.

"Okay, yes, it may seem kinda weird. But hey! At least we serve both food and drink there!" David didn't seem to mind. Maybe that's what everyone's first reaction to the family's restaurant was, or at least, pretty common.

"Ah well, that seems pretty cool." Josh felt a huge weight lifted off of his shoulders knowing that he'd finally get something to eat. And amazement was the first thing Josh saw when he and the rest of the team finally came across a super big circular bar with a hut roof attached to it.

 **Okay, so you may be like, "What the heck is Tropical Arena?" or, "That's not an arena in Clash Royale!" Well, it's actually an arena concept I made of. If it seems complex, don't worry, I know what you mean, and if you want to look into it some more, further information can be assessable through my Profile Page on FanFiction with a direct link! Enjoy the upcoming chapters that follow!**


	13. Seafood for Breakfast

Chapter 12: Seafood for Breakfast

"Hey Uncle Kawasaki! We're here!" David called out to what looked like the person tending the bar, as the Dodgeball Dragons team got closer to the big circular hut like bar.

"Hey Champ! Good to see you again! And who is this friend you got there?" Kawasaki asked as he held his hand in front of Josh to handshake. Josh gave a handshake back.

"Uh…hi. My name is Josh." Josh smiled nervously.

Uncle Kawasaki looked just like David. With light tan skin tone, black hair that swirled all around him, and was wearing a blue apron.

"Yeah, Diego couldn't participate in the Dodgeball Match because he sprained his leg unfortunately." Li explained.

"And luckily Josh offered to be a substitute for him." Kai explained also.

"And thanks to him, our team won." Chang nodded.

"Now that's what I call perfect timing!" Kawasaki exclaimed as he was finishing wiping off a glass cup in his hand with a green looking rag.

"I'll say!" David said as he entered inside the bar, while the rest of the team sat outside the bar in nearby chairs. Josh could see a few people get drinks from nearby bartenders nearby in the bar and walk off.

"So whatcha guys want?" David asked as Kawasaki started to bartend someone else.

"Uh…let's see here…" Li started to say.

"I'll have a Blueberry smoothie." Chang said.

"I'll have three Spring Rolls please." Kai raised his hand briefly before setting it down.

"Clam Chowder for me, as usual." Maui smirked.

"How about making some Fish Omelet for me?" Diego chuckled.

"Gosh, so much food choices!" Josh continued to glance up at the menu that was hanging from the ceiling.

"Hmm… I think I'll settle on Koi soup." Li finally finished.

"Um… well, I'm pretty hungry right now, so I'll get some lobster and some Crab Cakes." Josh finally came to his decision.

David nodded and got right to work, and started to wrap the rolls of the spring rolls. The seating arrangement was Diego, Kai, Josh, Li, Chang, and Maui.

Everyone around Josh was busy in conversation, so Josh himself decided to ask David a few questions. Besides, David was making food right in front of him, inches away, like those restaurants that make food in front of you.

"So David, does your uncle own this place?" Josh asked.

"Of course. It's a family business." David chuckled, not looking up from finishing up the spring rolls.

"Do you know all these people around who work here well?" Josh asked. David nodded in reply.

"Did you know that all these people who work here, they are in my Uncle's Dodgeball team?" David smiled.

"Really? Your uncle is in a Dodgeball Team?" Josh asked.

"Yep." David quickly put the spring rolls in a strainer and dropped it in a nearby pot of boiling water, submerging it completely.

"It sure is busy around here!" Josh commented, looking around. He could count about fifty chairs from where he was sitting.

"Yeah. It's pretty common." David said as he started stirring something with a big wooden spoon in another big pot.

Josh looked around some more. Everything seemed in complete control. The only thing that he noticed was out of place was a couple of familiar teenagers crossing their arms and glaring at him angrily. Or…maybe they weren't staring at him at all and are staring at someone else.

"So Josh, where are you from?" David later asked him as he gave three freshly cooked spring rolls on a plate to Kai.

"Thanks." Kai said as he started to eat the spring rolls hot with his hands. Good thing Kai had excused himself before to wash his hands.

"I…um…" Josh didn't want to tell him that he was wanted by executioners back in Jungle Arena. The last thing he needed was to stir up trouble in this arena!

Josh decided to lie. But in his defense, he knew it was for an okay cause.

"I'm just adventuring through arenas." Josh said.

"Oh really?" David said, surprised. "What's your plan?"

"My plan?" Josh blinked. "Well… I honestly don't know. I was just traveling through here looking for people…to um… help."

David nodded in reply. "I barely know anyone who does that, but it's an honor to have one of you people help our team!"

"Yeah." Josh smiled.

With that, David went over towards a frying grill nearby and started to put in what looked like to be tofu chunks on a stick that was already waiting to be fried on a board nearby.

Another Dodgeball Player in Kawasaki's team went over and handed a Blueberry smoothie to Chang.

"Gladly appreciated that, thank you very much." Chang nodded, as he picked the straw that came with it and started slurping on it slowly.

"Haven't seen you around." Said the Dodgeball Player to Josh when he noticed him. "You new around here?"

"Yeah." Josh nodded.

"Well, welcome. Hope you have a good time at this place." The Dodgeball Player nodded before walking off and tending with two other Dodgeballers on the opposite end of the Drinkery to help with frying out what looked like to be a giant trout.

Josh looked around the place some more. He liked this kind of environment. He noticed that Li was just about to finish up his conversation with Chang, and a few seconds later, another Dodgeballer in Kawasaki's team set down a bowl of Koi soup.

"Thanks." Li said, before lightly blowing on his hot Koi soup that had steams that were going out of it slowly.

"So Li," Josh began, as the Dodgeballer walked off. "I noticed that you stayed on the field the longest out of anyone on the team!"

Li chuckled. "Well yeah. I guess. I guess my practice paid off."

"But how long do you practice? Do you like practice for hours playing target practice and dodging or something?" Josh asked.

"Actually Josh, since my Dad owns a training ground, I practice my Dodgeball skills in a variety of different exercises." Li replied.

"Your dad owns a training ground? That's pretty cool! What kinds of skill building exercises do you do?" Josh asked.

"I have an exercise that helps improve my eye coordination first off." Li said. "That's why I managed to throw a coconut and successfully hit off a coconut that was about to hit Kai."

"I always need to improve my eye coordination." Josh remembered how he didn't notice Brain's hooligans as they managed to catch up to him while he was trying to make a run for it. "So what's the exercise?"

"I have three different kinds of training games I could do to improve my eye coordination. The first one is target practice. My dad has these wooden platforms and pedestals that are used for training purposes. Anyways, I usually put either wooden dummies or if I'm quick enough, targets."

"There is competition for using targets for your training session?" Josh asked.

"Yeah." Li replied. "The way my dad figures it, if everyone noticed that my Dad gave one of their sons their own targets that no one else can use, they would feel jealous, and my Dad always wants everyone who trains there feel comfortable, so he treats everyone, including me and my brothers, equal."

"You got brothers huh? What do they do?" Josh asked.

"I got a couple of brothers, some of them are Brawlers, people who spar using no weapons out all, and some of them," Li raised an eyebrow. "Are good rollers."

"Good rollers?" Josh asked.

"Yeah. If you see any barrels along the perimeters of the training ground," Li snickered. "They are only used for getting in them and rolling, got it?"

"Right…" Josh chuckled. "I see what some of your brothers do."

"So how old are you Li?" Josh asked.

"I'm fifteen," Li replied. "By the way, did you know that I am the only Dodgeballer in my family?"

"Really?" Josh asked.

"Yep. I've been practicing and training Dodgeball ever since I was one year old."

"One year old? You gotta be kidding me. When you are one year old, you already know how to throw a ball, or rather, a coconut?" Josh was astounded by what Li said.

"Oh no, I'm not that extreme." Li chuckled and smiled. "My dad has been training me very early. He always wanted a Dodgeballer in his family."

"So when you are a year old, what did you know about Dodgeball?" Josh asked.

"Usually I can remember a few days when Dad would take me out on some days to watch some Dodgeball games. And when I slept at night and Dad on a daily basis would read a Dodgeball rule book." Li said.

"I wish my Dad would do that." Josh sighed. He didn't want to give out the real truth about his father at all.

"I wish everyone had a dad like mine." Li replied back. "But don't worry Josh. I'm sure you dad has something my dad doesn't."

"Well how can I know?" Josh asked. "All my dad ever works is as a stuntman."

"A stuntman? Isn't that awesome?" Li asked.

"It sure is." Josh agreed. "He even tried to teach me a few stunt moves every day when I was little, but I just wasn't good enough."

"Don't say that." Li said. "Why weren't you good enough?"

"My dad trained me on basic exercises, like showing me what a balance beam is, pulling in a ramp like mat and I'd try to perform what he calls 'Safety Rolls', stuff like that." Josh sighed.

"Anything wrong with that?" Li asked as Diego and Maui both got their food, the fish omelet as Diego ordered, and the Clam Chowder as Maui ordered.

"After I managed to perform at least okay performance on those exercises…" Josh shook his head.

"That's when my Dad thought I can be challenged further than normal, so he brought in exercises that were a big leap from a paced progression that I was hoping for."

"What exactly were you expecting?" Li asked as he took a split-second to glance at his Koi soup, but once he saw that there were still some hot steams coming out, he turned back to give Josh's full attention.

"I'd expect him to help me cartwheel and flip against the wall with his support so he can give me some experiencing with flipping with support. I was around Five I think at the time, and that was a little after I watched a television show where they featured a…" Josh tried to remember who the character was.

"The television show featured this Ninja, and particularly I could remember an escape scene in one of the episodes, where the Ninja, who was a panda," Josh felt embarrassed that he was talking about this, but he kept on talking. "Was getting chased down by these wolfs wearing bandannas and armor." Josh continued. "The setting was I think at some kind of laboratory or factory. Anyways, just as one or two of the wolfs were about to catch up to the ninja at the exit, the ninja all of a sudden jumped forwards, planted both of his feet on a wall, flipped over, and was immediately behind them in an instant. The ninja then used some kind of maneuver that I couldn't remember but it was a pretty cool one. It sent both of the wolfs twisted down onto the floor."

"And you really wanted to learn how to flip off a wall?" Li asked.

"Yeah." Josh said. "But my dad was trying to help me by doing hard stunts that I guess I was supposed to combine my basic skills with."

"On one of the exercises he showed me, the point is," Josh continued. "I was supposed to stretch my safety roll skills by learning how to jump off a platform that was bigger than twice my height, and when I land on a mat down below, I was supposed to roll so I could absorb all of the blow."

"Wow," Li said. "How did that turn out?"

"Not so good." Josh sheepishly scratched the back of his hair. "Mostly I'd land right on my face."

"There was also another exercise I remembered him giving me," Josh continued. "I guess in that exercise I was supposed to control my way in air and calculate distance in jumping. But anyways, the exercise I was supposed to do was to jump from one balance beam to another."

"Your dad really knows how to stretch and train you out!" Li chuckled. "How did that turn out also?"

"I practically nearly smashed my entire mouth up doing that exercise!" Josh shivered at the thought. "Good thing he was there to help me back up. Otherwise, who knows where else am I supposed to put food into to eat?"

Li laughed. "Well, just be glad that isn't a reality."

"Yeah." Josh grinned a bit.

"Here's your crab cake and lobster Josh." Josh noticed David say as he set down a plate with two crab cakes that were each the size of little pancakes. The lobster was also in a plate, with a lobster claw half open, and half a lemon also to the side. The crab cakes also had a orange looking sauce poured out on top of it, looking scrumptiously yummy.

"Thanks David." Josh said as he picked up the mini knife and the fork that came with it and started to cut his food up.

Li glanced back at his soup. The steams from it were still going on, but Li liked eating food that was still hot.

Li started to pick up the spoon and started eating too.

"This crab cake is really good!" Josh exclaimed once he took the first bite. David overheard Josh say that and smirked.

"Thanks. I've had experience in making seafood for quite some time now." David chuckled as he walked off to another part of the Drinkery and started to dump some parts of more lobster in a fryer.

After breakfast was over, Diego, Maui, Kai, Li, Chang, and Josh waved back at David as they walked off, for David still had a busy day left at the Drinkery.

"So did you enjoy your crab cake Josh?" Chang asked.

"Yeah." Josh nodded. "I could almost literally feel the taste exploding in my mouth."

Everyone else nodded also.

"Thanks for your help Josh. You really did make the great substitute." Diego said.

"Yeah. Hey, how can we contact you again if we need another substitute?" Maui asked.

"Well…" Josh asked. How could he? Being a substitute in their Dodgeball Team is just what he needed to expand his skills. "You could uh…" Josh didn't know how they could communicate to him… except for one thing.

"You know what? Maybe I might as well stay here in Tropical Arena for a while." Josh grinned.

Diego, Maui, Kai, Chang, and Li looked at each other and smiled.

"Really? That's great!" Kai said.

"Yeah, next time there is a Dodgeball match, you can just let the Dodgeball Dragons know!" Li said.

"Thanks!" Josh smiled.

All of a sudden Kai turned around and sighed.

"See you guys. I gotta go to swim class." He said as he ran off and waved.

"See you next time Kai!" Diego said as the rest of them waved back.

"I have to go to surfing class too!" Maui said as he ran off and waved.

"I have to go to wakeboarding class too!" Diego nervously said. Diego looked down at his leg. "I hope I could get an exception though this time."

"And I have to return to Dad's training ground." Li said. "Thanks again Josh."

"No problem. See you around!" Josh waved to them as they walked away, even Chang maybe had his own thing to do even if he didn't say so.

Josh then started walking back on the boardwalk.

"So… what do I do now?" Josh thought to himself.

Josh continued to just walk on the boardwalk in silence when he all of a sudden felt a sharp pain near his shoulder.

"Ow!" Josh quickly swatted his shoulder to douse away the pain, but when he looked behind him, he knew that it wasn't a sunburn of some sort.

Brody was standing there, with five of the same Dodgeballers in his team. Brody was carrying a long stick that had the ends lit with fire.

"Just creased you there." Brody chuckled. "If I forced it further your shoulder would have burned to a crisp."

"What do you six want?" Josh asked his voice tone neutral.

"Nothing in particularly. That Dodgeball game you just substituted for. There were some high risks for it. Better off if you didn't even need to get involved." One of the Dodgeballers snickered.

"Hey, I was just helping them out!" Josh chuckled nervously. "You can't blame me! You didn't have one player short of your team."

Brody's teammates looked at him. Brody tensed up in reply.

"I'll teach you a lesson though." Brody growled. "That Dodgeball game was for big reward. Pride."

"Oh that's it. All you six want is pride." Josh nodded slowly.

"We never had felt pride in a long time." Brody started. "Our team kept on losing. We tried new strategies. We tried new techniques. All we wanted was even just a little bit of pride. And we were just about to have pride… until you came in."

"Don't blame me!" Josh nervously gulped.

"Thanks to you, we can never feel pride ever again. We Flamers are just like that. We will never feel pride… until now." Brody showed a smirk.

"What do you mean-" Josh began, when he all of a sudden felt a strong fist to the face.

"Hey!" Josh exclaimed in pain as he fell down backwards.

Brody's teammates got behind Brody as he gave his fire stick to another of his teammates.

"Violence isn't gonna bring your... pride." Josh sighed exasperatedly.

"Sure it will." Brody snickered. "This fight will make up for the pride that we were supposed to have."

"But-"Josh began, when Brody punched him in the face. Josh stumbled backwards and fell down on the boardwalk. Brody smiled as he kicked Josh, who was still down on the ground, and as a result of the impact, Josh landed on the sand.

Josh coughed.

"Besides. What do you have to lose?" Brody smirked as he whacked Josh down onto the ground with his fists.

Josh coughed. "My breakfast." He said, embarrassed.

Brody's teammates laughed at that reply. Brody looked back and sneered angrily at Josh. He grabbed Josh by the shirt and punched him again, and then grabbed him again and kicked his stomach with his kneecap.

"UGH!" Josh was trying to focus on controlling his esophagus from not giving way from anything down below it to come up.

Josh was sent flying backwards and rolled once on the sand. He was sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain.

Brody tensed up his fists. "Well what are you waiting for? Are you gonna try to take my pride away from me again or what?"

"I'm sure you can get pride somewhere else." Josh replied as he hobbled back up and punched towards Brody's face. Brody grabbed Josh's wrists and then punched him in the chest. Then he tripped Josh over by sliding his right leg in front of both of Josh's legs, and Josh howled in pain and surprised as he was sent flying forward and slammed head first onto more sand. Good thing he landed just inches away from hitting the boardwalk.

By then, a crowd started emerging, consisting of a little more than twenty people now, all gathered around in an oval shape.

"FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!" They all chanted as they watched the fight between Josh and Brody.

Brody kicked Josh again in the stomach while he was on the ground, and then forced Josh's face towards the ground.

"How would you like some of that huh?" Brody growled and snickered. "You are giving me pride. Thank you for that!"

Josh grabbed Brody's wrists and tried to throw him over. Brody only grabbed Josh back up and then threw Josh sideways to the left, ramming him to his kneecap to Josh's stomach again, Josh tumbling over and nearly flipping, landing on his back against the ground. Josh felt miserable.

Brody quickly went over to Josh just as he got up and punched towards his face. Josh could only brace the impact as he stumbled backwards. If he fought successfully against executioners, why can't he win?

Josh managed to block a punch to the face, but then as he tried to punch back, Brody grabbed his wrist again. Josh looked exasperatedly and a bit frustrated and punched towards Brody again. Brody grabbed hold of his fist again and then leaped up, before kicking Josh in the stomach with both of his feet, Brody falling back down to the ground and getting up fast, while Josh rolling over and landing back, his face only looking at sand.

"You feel pride yourself Josh?" Brody growled.

"Not yet." Josh sighed in pain as he held up his stance.

Brody jumped forward, ready to strike Josh with his right fist back. Josh quickly jumped away to the right, and then hook punched towards Brody. Brody blocked it, and then when Josh punched towards him again with his left fist, Brody held it in place, before punching Josh's stomach again.

Josh saw Brody smile as he punched Josh's face again, towards the right of his view. Josh's eyes widened as he was sent spiraling towards the ground in the air, more of in a twisting like pattern. Somehow while in the air, he managed to turn towards Brody, but he was still on the ground.

"Why did I get myself in this situation?" Josh groaned as he managed to look up at Brody while on the ground but failed. He was lying with his stomach facing the ground. Josh raised his right fist, but to his alarm, he felt a wave of pain over him.

Josh's right fist dropped down and he could look at Brody, with his eyesight barely able to make out the crowd gathered around them.

But what he didn't see in the crowd, was a familiar white haired girl, wearing a mask, and blackjack tucked under her belt.


	14. The Plan

Chapter 13: The Plan

Brody casually dusted off both of his fists, even though his fists didn't really need dusting off. Josh was still sprawled out against the ground, and could barely even lift his face just a few inches from the sand.

Brody was smirking towards him as he stepped backwards a few feet just to be sure if Josh was going to play any tricks on him next. Josh could be the type of person who could fake being unconscious.

"So how are you feeling?" Brody exclaimed to Josh, who managed to glare at him angrily from sprawled out across the sand.

"Don't want to say terrible, that's for sure." Josh muttered as he kept on thinking about how to get back at Brody. But how could he?

Then Josh thought about his brother Jack. Jack was still on his mind, and even though he had the dimmest thought of missing him, he knew Jack's teachings of fighting would still stay on around in his heart.

"Come on… think outside the box Josh!" Josh muttered to himself again exasperatedly.

"Want me to kick him again?" Brody snickered towards the ground.

"Kick him! KICK HIM, KICK HIM, KICK HIM!" The ground chanted. The white haired girl just glared at Brody and Josh.

Brody went quickly towards Josh and he was about to kick him, when Josh shouted, scrambled forward and threw sand from both of his hands, which were clenched up earlier, collecting them.

"Pwah!" Brody spit and exhaled out sand as he wafted away a bit, but as soon as he regained a bit of sight, he was just in time to see a vicious punch to the face. Brody stumbled backwards, but then was hit by another punch towards him again. And then again, and then again!

"Come on! Come on! Beat him Brody!" His teammates exclaimed as Brody kept on being punched slowly but simultaneously by Josh.

"I got- AH! Sand in the eyes!" Brody sputtered as he coughed out my sand.

Josh clenched his teeth and punched towards Brody's face again.

"Aha!" Brody finally regained his vision fully and grabbed Josh's fist, much to his surprise.

"Huh?" Josh gulped.

Brody snickered as he kicked Josh in the stomach.

That kick made Josh lose his grip, so Josh stumbled backwards, and nearly fell over but tried balancing himself.

"Ha!" Brody jumped towards Josh, and while he was in the air, was charging up a punch, so when he was still in the air but in Josh's range, he punched Josh in the face.

"Ow!" Josh growled as he fell backwards, and his back skidded across the sand. He slowly got up but was stumbling around the sand.

"That's it! Keep at it!" Most of the crowd exclaimed those encouraging remarks at Brody. Brody then picked up handfuls of sand and hurled it at Josh.

"Pwah!" Josh sputtered out sand as he stumbled forward and face-planted onto the sand yet, again! He groaned miserable as he just lay there, wanting to hide himself in it. He didn't want to make such a big shame of himself in front of all these people at Tropical Arena.

"Another punch and he might've broken my mouth." Brody muttered as he rubbed the bottom of his chin. One of Brody's teammates, who had red hair and blue eyes held Brody's fire stick in front of him.

"You need this?" The teammate asked.

"Not now Nick. Not now." Brody growled, without even looking at him. "I want to see him on the ground, with not one bit of pride left inside of him."

"He's had enough Brody." One of Brody's teammates, who had brown hair and blue eyes replied.

"Not quite enough Tyler." Brody growled again, as he moved towards Josh again.

Brody grabbed the back collar of Josh's shirt. Josh was glad he returned the jersey with the Number Ten on it to Diego before he left. He wouldn't know how Diego would react when he could see the jersey in flames.

"You are one tough kid." Brody smirked angrily at Josh. Josh could barely glare at Brody angrily.

"I'd say the same to you." Josh growled silently back as he punched towards Brody's stomach, starting to use the last of his remaining strength.

Brody grabbed Josh's fists and clenched it tightly. Josh clenched his teeth in anger and punched towards Brody's stomach with his other fist, catching him off guard. Brody's eyes widened as he quickly retreated backwards. Josh tried to shake out at least some of the pain that was still radiating all around him.

"I wish you could try to find pride somewhere else." Josh said to Brody.

"Why? This is the best place I can get the best pride from!" Brody rubbed his knuckles before punching towards Josh. Josh ducked and then punched towards Brody. Brody blocked it and then jabbed Josh in the chest, and when Josh jumped in the air towards him in reply, even before Josh could get a few inches from the ground, Brody kicked Josh's legs swiftly, making a full three sixty pivot around, Josh falling back first onto the sand.

"Yeah! Keep at it!" Most of the crowd chanted.

Brody looked around at the crowd and nodded. They were seriously enjoying this fun! Josh slowly got up.

"Maybe I can give you a tip next time just so you can stay away from us." Brody snickered.

"And what's that?" Josh ran towards him ready to punch him the face. He wanted to get on him and just punch the heck out of him so much.

"Don't be friends with our enemies." Brody smirked before moving casually to the side and tripping Josh forward. Josh exclaimed in surprise as he fell forward and fell onto the sand again. He rolled over and glared at Brody again.

"It was never my fault, it was yours!" Josh tried to reason out. "You don't just get angry over one game! You can't just let one loss let you down!" Josh didn't even know what he was saying. He was trying desperately to avoid this fight, and he still didn't notice the familiar white haired girl wearing a mask in the crowd.

"Fight him! Fight him again!" The crowd chanted. Brody looked towards Josh again.

"We were just about to have a win! Until you! You came in! You helped that team of freaks win!" Brody wanted to force Josh into the water.

"It was just an act of a good deed!" Josh replied back exasperatedly. "Can't you just see? Pride can be obtained not from just winning!"

"Oh?" Brody's voice nearly came out in a shouting like voice tone.

"Yes! If you do something good, something that will provide something that is beneficial, that's where Pride can also come from too!" Josh said.

"That's not real pride!" Brody ran towards him and punched towards Josh's face. Josh ducked down and then moved forward and punched Brody in the stomach swiftly and punched down towards his back. Brody stopped Josh's fist's progress towards landing the impact on his back, and grabbed him forward and threw him downwards.

"Ugh!" Josh exclaimed as he nearly landed a front flip on the sand, landing on his back.

Josh rolled back more slowly, with bruises all over himself. For some reason his esophagus was doing a really good job at controlling the traffic down on his stomach from escaping upwards!

Josh tried to crawl back up at the most, but then failed and landed down on the sand again, his stomach facing towards the sand, and him looking at Brody.

Brody grabbed Josh's front shirt collar again, turned around, and managed to throw him downwards towards to sand, for he didn't want Josh to be thrown towards the crowd.

Josh wanted to just slump down onto the sand. He felt helpless, with the crowds chanting encouraging words to Brody. And he was already mad enough!

Josh, exhausted, face-planted onto the sand, barely making any movement.

"That was awesome!" Nick exclaimed as Brody showed the same smile as he once did at the beginning of the Dodgeball match they played that included Josh in his enemy's team.

"Now that it's taken care of-" Brody began when he heard Josh groan again. Brody looked back, and dusted off his fists. Josh was still glaring towards him, but he could already feel himself blacking out and his arms and legs were limped downwards, and he was sprawled on the ground again. Josh looked towards Brody and the crowd once more before face-planting his face onto the sand.

"I don't mind finishing this off." He smirked before heading towards him. He bolted towards Josh, but before he managed to get towards him, for a split second, he heard a bird like sound and in a single second, he tripped forwards and on the ground.

"What the!" He looked back behind him. A white haired girl, wearing a mask and what looked like to be a club was standing a few feet away, a slight grin on her face.

"What was that for?" Brody growled.

"My answer is really that important to you?" The girl snickered as she tucked her blackjack in her belt.

"Huh?" Brody gaped.

Josh managed to look up from the sand and could make out another person fighting Brody. But who? But then… it all started to come to him. Because, who would fight with a mask on, have a club tucked in a belt, and have the same kind of face he remembered seeing yesterday night…

"The Most Valuable Player?" Josh's voice came out at nearly as quiet as a whisper.

Josh tried to focus his eyesight forward, and he started seeing more, and was even more confused.

"It's her!" Josh tried to exclaim, but he was still sprawled out on the ground. "But why is she helping me?" He whispered again.

Juno blocked two punches from Brody, and then punched towards Brody's face. Brody's eyes widened as he quickly ducked down, he was met with a strong kick to the face.

"Gaah!" Brody exclaimed as he fell backwards, his butt skidding across the sand. Juno walked forward towards him.

"Hey, you better watch what you are doing with that club you got!" Brody chuckled nervously.

"I know." Juno only smiled at him.

"Yo Nick! Throw me my fire stick!" Brody exclaimed.

"You got it! Flame her up!" Nick nodded as he tossed the fire stick towards Brody. Juno's eyes widened when she saw the fire stick in the air over her, so she couldn't hit it away, and Brody got back up, catching the fire stick, which still had flames on the ends of it, with his left hand.

Brody snickered. Juno grabbed her blackjack in reply.

"Ooh! Another fight! FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!" The crowd started chanting, and growing more in size, to as much as fifty people from the combatant's point of view.

"Now it's time to let this fight overheat!" Brody twirled his fire stick around his hands with extreme precision, before jousting it forward towards Juno. Juno ducked and blocked part of the stick with her blackjack, and Brody lashed out again in reply.

Brody jumped towards Juno and slammed his fire stick towards Juno's blackjack. Juno's eyes widened as she took a step backwards. Brody ducked and then used his stick to land an upper attack towards Juno's face. Juno jumped backward, dashed around to Brody's back, and then hit him forward.

"Haugh!" Brody growled angrily as he was sent flying forward onto the sand, but immediately got back up.

Josh kept on watching, conserving his energy, as he just lay sprawled out on the ground and occasionally taking a few peeks out at the fight from the sand.

After a few more seconds of both sticks clashing against each other, Brody all of a sudden faked an attack towards Juno's face. Juno ducked on accident, and that's when Brody lashed downwards. Juno jumped back, but as soon as she did that, Brody continued his attack by hitting forward on Juno's blackjack, knocking it away, and Juno's eyes widened again in that reply.

"OWUCH!" someone from the crowd cried out as soon as the blackjack made its landing somewhere among them.

Josh was now crawling on the ground, very embarrassed.

"Ha! You are useless now without your little club!" Brody snickered.

Juno managed to take a glance back towards the ground and the sand beneath them, but she couldn't find the club from her view.

Brody walked forwards even more when he all of a sudden felt a tug and then a yank on his ankles.

"Wha- HEY!" Brody exclaimed in surprise as he fell forward towards Juno. Juno jumped a bit backwards in surprise, but then could see Josh hobbling back up.

Juno quickly ran into the crowd and started searching the ground, the portion of the crowd that Juno was searching in was frantically moving away. Juno managed to find her blackjack a few minutes later, lying on the ground, feet away.

Juno moved towards it, before all of a sudden, a teenager that was wearing the jersey number Forty, and had blond hair and had freckles on his face.

"Got it!" The teenager shouted.

Juno glared at the teenager angrily and was just about to dash when she looked towards Josh and Brody. Brody was viciously punching towards Josh, his fire stick on the sand beside him, who was trying his best to defend against the fists, but a lot of Brody's attacks were making its way towards vulnerable targets.

Juno rolled her eyes before dashing on and smashing both of her fists against Brody, Brody shouted in pain and tumbled into Josh.

Juno then looked towards Josh. Josh looked towards her, and then with Brody.

"That's it!" Josh thought to himself. "The key to winning this fight!" That gave him a bit of new strength and it felt like a wake-up call to him.

Josh quickly ducked a fire stick hook swing towards the face as Brody picked up his fire stick just now.

Josh quickly jumped on Brody's back.

"HEY!" Brody growled.

Juno stepped backwards and dashed forward, smashing another fist into Brody's stomach.

"OOF!" Brody gasped in pain as the force was so strong, Josh had to set his feet on the ground and step backwards. By now the crowd was now shouting, with a war of remarks on each other.

About one quarter of the crowd was starting to root for Juno, but the rest was still rooting for the fight to go on.

Brody had his right knee resting on the sand and his left hand keeping him balanced. When he looked up, he could see two different kinds of shoes hit him in the face.

"Owuch!" Brody was sent flying backwards and skidded across the sand. When he slowly got back up, he was pushed forward, and then finally punched downwards. He growled silently before going limp.

"Watch it!" Josh said towards Juno. Juno looked backwards and ducked a blackjack jab to the face, before punching the teenager in the stomach and then punching him downwards. Juno grabbed her blackjack from Jackie and tucking it in her belt.

"Um… right Jackie. You were saying on just making the first move?" Nick chuckled nervously.

"Let's get out of here." Tyler muttered.

With that, Jackie groaned in reply and slow got up and shot an angry glare at both Juno and Josh. He then quickly grabbed Brody's wrist and fire stick and started dragging him away.

"Come on Brody. We'll wake you up with some water later." The teammate muttered.

By then, since the fight was fizzling out, the crowd started clearing away. Josh wiped sweat from his hair.

"So…you came back huh?" Josh said towards the Most Valuable Player.

"Of course I did." The Most Valuable Player replied. It wouldn't hurt to talk for a while.

"But… why did you fight?" Josh asked, confused.

"What else was I suppose to do you idiot? Just let you get beat up?" The Most Valuable Player rolled her eyes.

"Right… well thanks anyway." Josh chuckled nervously. "I gotta admit, we'd make a pretty good team."

The Most Valuable Player raised an eyebrow.

"That's pretty cool to know…" she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'll be going now. I have to go clear my name." she finished.

"Clear your name?" Josh asked, before pondering for a few seconds. Of course, it was his fault that she had to clear her name. She had stabbed him after all. "Do you know how you're ever gonna do that?"

"Of course." Juno rolled her eyes again. "I'm going over to Repentance Ravine."

"Repentance Ravine?" Josh asked.

"You know… the place where people around the realm go to clear their name by fighting others who need to clear their name too?"

"Um… no. I don't know that place…" Josh said, but all of a sudden, he thought of it. Now this was an adventure he was looking for!

"Um… this might seem kind of weird and strange if I ask you this…" Josh gulped nervously. "But um… since we are a good team, and I'd might make a good ally in the future, can I… uh… come with you?"

Josh had no hope at all for his request. That seemed like a bazaar kind of question to ask, considering how much they had both gone through over the course of hours. Juno's squinted eyes looked down on him, even though they were relatively just about the same height. Juno could be thinking of anything right now. Every single detail in Josh mattered to whether or not his request would be granted. One wrong detail could already send Josh's request dashing to the rocks.

Maybe it was his nervous smile, ruffled hair, it could be anything.

Although Josh wasn't the best teammate with the most potential, Juno did see a few benefits. For the most part, Josh could take care of himself, as she figured she once saw him in Jungle Arena and had probably spent the night out in the jungle and arrived in Tropical Arena in near perfect condition. He knew how to fight too, and probably had experience with fighting off thugs before, and she had the strangest feeling that he was the one who was causing havoc earlier in the morning.

"Mmm..." Juno said with her lips scrunched to the side as she judged carefully the teen in front of her. "Fine."

"You really mean it?" Josh was surprised.

"Of course I mean it you idiot!" Juno rolled her eyes. "We're equal now, doing this okay?"

"Yeah." Josh nervously gulped. "Okay."

With that, Juno started walking on the boardwalk, which seemed to be the starting path towards Repentance Ravine. Josh followed her, but then realized something.

"Hey… so… you never told me what your name is." Josh said nervously towards The Most Valuable Player. The Most Valuable Player stopped, and turned around.

"My name is Juno." The Most Valuable Player said, as she held a hand towards Josh.

Josh looked down at Juno's hand for a second but then shook it with his hand.

"My name is Josh." Josh smiled.

Juno nodded briefly before turning around and continued walking, and Josh started following her again. But that was when he realized something.

That was the first time he smiled at her and the first time he thought...

This could be a new friendship.

 **I go at my own pace at uploading chapters, so watch out for either me being fast paced with my chapters, or me taking it nice and slow! And keep in mind that I am not writing stories alone, I have friends to prefer to stay anonymous, but they help me out with giving the story the best quality it can have!**


	15. Loser Arena

Chapter 14: Loser Arena

"We're here." Juno said after what seemed like to be hours of walking.

"Finally." Josh muttered as he stepped out of some nearby big green leaves. "I was beginning to think you were gonna get us lost."

"You really think I was going to get us lost when I am trying to clear my name?" Juno shook her head. "Funny how your mind works Josh."

Josh stopped, but then sighed. "You got me there."

Repentance Ravine looked like a big massive cave entrance, but there was some built in materials that were surrounding it.

Juno headed inside first, and Josh followed her slowly after. Now Josh could start to see that the ceilings of the cave were starting to have plated ceiling attached to it, and the floor was harder surface like. There was a booth a few feet away that housed what looked like to be a man with fair skin tone, and he had a necklace around that had a Giant Tooth attached to it.

"You two registering?" He asked in a raspy voice once Juno and slightly nervous Josh arrived.

"Yeah." Juno said in response.

"And this is you're…?" The man then turned towards Josh, but then he blinked. He then looked towards Juno, and then Josh, and then Juno, and then Josh again very quickly, before he shook his head.

"My apologies." He muttered. "And you are?"

"Um… I'm her ally." Josh nervously stuttered, though he did get a swift jab to the elbow without the man noticing it.

The Man nodded. He then pointed to another booth that was a few meters ahead of where Josh and Juno were. Josh nervously smiled and hurried onward and followed Juno.

"What was that for?!" Josh growled.

"Speak properly, your embarrassing me." Juno scowled back.

"How?" Josh slightly smirked.

"You… just speak properly okay?" Juno rolled her eyes and continued forward towards to booth, which was housing two people, a man and a woman, both wearing leather.

"And we are assuming you are a team?" The woman later said as soon as Josh and Juno reached the booth. Josh quickly glanced backwards and noticed that it was definitely more crowded, as more and more people started entering.

"Um, y-yea-"Josh began as he quickly turned around, only to have his mouth covered by Juno's right hand.

"Yeah, we're a team." Juno quickly said.

The man and the woman looked puzzled towards both of them, but they started to write down something on their clipboards they were holding and then they both looked up again.

"What are your names?" The man all of a sudden said.

"Juno." Juno said, removing her gloved hand from Josh's mouth, but shot the glare at him that meant the or else, if he stuttered again.

Josh took a deep breath.

"Josh." Josh tried to say it in the calmest manner that he could.

"Okay, Juno and Josh." The woman nodded before writing more things down on a clipboard. "You are going to have to remember your dorm rooms okay?"

"There are dorms here?" Josh was amazed.

"Why yes! Certainly if a season of fighting is going to last over a course of days, you are going to need a place to bunk." The man raised his eyebrow. "I take this is your first time here?"

"Yeah." Josh nodded.

"I see. Lots of newcomers come around here at this time around." The man said as he quickly scribbled down something.

"And Juno…" the woman said while looking down on her clipboard before looking up. "You are bunking in dorm Seven Two."

"And Josh…" the man said while looking down on his clipboard before looking up. "You are bunking in dorm Four Zero."

Josh nodded in reply, though he was a bit confused. Why not just say the number Seventy Two, and Forty?

"Well, we both hope you both can get very far in the tournament brackets this season! There are some rumors that some competitors as tough as the infamous Mega Knight has decided to join." The man said.

"A Mega Knight?" Josh asked? Just the name gave him shivers.

"Yep. Don't worry though…" The man looked down at Josh, observing him very closely. "I don't think he'd ever get matched up with you two."

"Right." Josh's voice was nearly shaking.

"You two may go now. The first assembly will start approximately twenty, or maybe less minutes from now." The woman concluded. By now, a bit more people started coming inside from the entrance.

"Twenty Minutes? Isn't that a long ti-" Josh began when Juno grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward as she walked away.

"Come on Josh, let's go." She muttered.

"Hey, whoa!" Josh growled. "Don't you see I'm trying to get some answers here?"

"The last thing I need is for people to question my mind on why I am bringing some newbie like you here." Juno replied back.

"Okay, okay." Josh sighed.

After a few more seconds of walking through a super wide corridor with a few other people, they could finally see the entrance to the whole arena.

"That's the place." Juno said. "Meet you there later."

Juno assumed Josh nodded and was about to go find her dorm room when Josh quickly grabbed her wrist.

"Wait! Aren't you gonna help me find my dorm? I mean, I'm kinda new here so…" Josh nervously said.

"That…" Juno slightly grinned. "Can be done on your own."

"What?" Josh was surprised.

"It's only the fortieth dorm here. Well, it seems like it, but it actually isn't." Josh was even more confused at that. It'll be easy for you." With that, Juno managed to break free from Josh's grip without a sweat and walked towards another corridor that for some reason had only females going towards.

"Huh." Josh scratched the back of his hair but shrugged.

"Here goes…"

A few minutes later…

Josh quickly sprinted out another corridor, with a princess with a red outfit chasing him down.

"And if you ever come into my room again, the arrow will come for real!" the princess shouted angrily towards him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Josh frantically shouted back as he finally made it back to the same circular path that was enclosed around the top bleachers of the whole arena. The princess glared angrily at Josh before turning around after she was about a meter away from him.

"Why can't you just lock the dorm door?" Josh muttered to himself.

Josh sighed as he looked around the different corridors with different numbers on the top.

"I'm just trying to find my dorm! Why can't anyone help me?" Josh said exasperatedly as he walked further, when all of a sudden, he felt a hand pat him on the back.

"My friend, you got a lot to learn here at Loser Arena." Josh heard a voice from behind. He turned around only to find what looked like to be a teenager about Li's age, with black hair, blue pants, and having ginormous gloves, but they looked more like mittens.

"And who are you?" Josh asked.

"I am Yao." The teenager said. "And you are?"

"Josh…" Josh was confused.

"I was just out getting a quick bite to eat and heading back to my dorm." Yao said and then looked around. "You new around here?"

"Yeah." Josh sheepishly scratched the back of his hair.

"This is my third year here and I pretty much know where all the dorms are." Yao replied. "Maybe I can help you."

"Um, I need to find dorm number Four Zero." Josh said.

"Hey, that just makes you my roommate!" Yao exclaimed. "I have dorm number Four Zero, and I can lead you there."

"Really?" Josh said. "Thanks! I thought the dorms were organized in like a general number and then a specific number. So I went over to the Dorm Hallway number Zero and then found Dorm number Zero Forty."

Yao chuckled. "You were on the right track, but I don't know what you were thinking there. In Loser Arena, things get very specific. Follow me."

Josh followed him. "Why do you call it Loser Arena?" Josh asked.

Yao sighed. "Loser Arena is looked down upon by many people." He said. "For the first year, I didn't even make it in the Quarter-Finals. The year after that, I did manage to make it in the Quarter-Finals, but just barely. Maybe this year, with all my training I have, I can make it to the Semi-Finals."

"Aren't you aiming for the Finals?" Josh asked.

"Oh yeah, I am." Yao replied back. "But I figured I'd be satisfied of my time here if I could at least make it to the Semi-Finals."

"Huh." Josh chuckled. "I'm just an ally for one of my, you could say acquaintances. She is trying to clear her name, and she really is pushing to get to the finals and win."

"Well what happened?" Yao asked as they entered the Dorm Hallway Number Four. Yao was still leading him.

"Um… well, let's just say it's kinda personal." Josh chuckled nervously.

"Hmm…" Yao said, before shrugging. "Beats me. I came here to clear my name for starting a brawl near my father's training grounds. I'd say the same thing you said. It's pretty personal."

"Training grounds?" Josh all of a sudden realized something. "Yao, does the name Li sound familiar too you?"

"You heard about my brother?" Yao was surprised.

"I actually played with him on a Dodgeball match, and I had breakfast with him and a few others." Josh said.

"Li is always so friendly." Yao agreed. "Well, here we are. Dorm Number Four Zero."

They stopped in front of a door that was about Seven or Eight Feet Tall. It was a blue door, and had a copper locked keyhole that looked on the verge of being rusted completely.

Yao took out a key from his pants pocket and showed it to Josh. "This is the dorm key, if you lose it, you do all the talking."

"Oh don't worry. There's no way that'll happen!" Josh shrugged.

Yao inserted the key in the locked keyhole and opened it. "Well here we are. Home Sweet Home. From Repentance Ravine."

Josh's eyes widened as he looked around what would be his and Yao's dorm room for a few weeks.

The room was about One Hundred Twenty Square Feet, maybe less. On the left side, there was a bunkbed with blue sheets on the corner. On the right corner, there was a roof that was slightly slanting to the left and a small wooden door that was leading out towards the left somewhere.

There was also a couch that was tucked in near the corner of the left which was to the left of the entrance of the dorm, and when Josh looked to the right of the dorm, he could see a leather punching bag that had a chain that was hanging from the ceiling. That would be very great at a time like this.

"So… this is it?" Josh was still shocked.

Yao gestured over to the wooden door. "That's the bathroom. But other than that, this is it. I mean, you are pretty sure that there are over hundreds of dorms here?"

"I'm pretty sure." Josh sighed. "This is gonna take a lot while to adjust to."

"I concur the same." Yao agreed.

Meanwhile with Juno, she was just a few feet away from dorm number Seven Two when she could hear what sounded like the sounds of a nunchuck streaking through the air, the whirling spinning like sound continuing forward after that.

Juno blinked towards the door, and just as she took another step towards it, she heard someone say from inside of the dorm,

"WHEEEYAH-WHAI!"

"Something tells me that this is gonna be a long night." Juno muttered to herself.

Juno didn't have the key to the dorm, but it was completely fine. Besides, if you were the first person to get your key, you would know that you would get to see your dorm first. But if you didn't get the key? Well, it just turns out that you were going to have some company every night at the Repentance Ravine.

Juno knocked on the door. At once, the sound of a nunchuck stopped almost instantly, and the voice also faltered too.

It took a few long seconds before the voice started.

"It's open."

"What?" Juno muttered quietly, but shrugged as she entered. Only when she walked in she could see another girl her age already in the air, with a nunchuck ready to slash at her.

"HAII-YAH!" The girl shouted as she as she swung her nunchuck towards Juno. Juno was hardly amused, but she could get a quick glimpse of what the dorm looked like. On the right the roof was slanted towards the right just a bit, and there was a couch and a rug over there. On the left corner near the door was a tall looking stand that had a bunch of small targets that were attached to it. To the right near the door was a wooden door there, which Juno recognized where it would lead it immediately just because of the way it looked. Finally, near the left corner of the room away from the door were the beds, more of, the bunkbed.

Juno quickly pulled out her blackjack from her belt and successfully deflected off the attack. The girl jumped back and swung her nunchuck skillfully around her once in a very quick motion.

"Do I know you?" The girl narrowed her eyes at Juno.

"You are about to." Juno replied. "Who does it look like I am?"

"Hmm..." The girl's lips were scrunched to the left and her eyes still narrowed.

"Maybe I can give you a big hint." Juno said. "That bunkbed over there is not going to be one bed empty tonight."

"Aha." The girl smirked. "So you are my dormmate."

"Apparently." Juno rolled her eyes.

"So… it would seem pretty weird if we just went and never knew our names. I'm Yin."

Yin had black hair, black eyes, and was wearing a black jumpsuit like outfit, but there was a zipper in case she decided to wear something else.

"I'm Juno, and you could say that I'm a bandit committed to reaching the finals." Juno said genuinely.

Yin was about to reply to Juno's remark on how she was determined to win, but all of a sudden, the loudspeaker that would be on the top of everyone's dorm started sounding the voice of a male announcer.

"Attention all combatants of Repentance Ravine. The Arena will start opening in a few minutes, and a brief Opening Orientation assembly will be given. Thanks, and enjoy the orientation!"

Juno and Yin stared at the loudspeaker for a second, before Juno opened the door first, with Yin closing the door behind her and locking the door.

"You excited Josh?" Yao asked, while he and Josh were walking with a few other people towards the entrance of the arena. A bunch of talking commotion could be heard in the background among them.

"A bit," Josh chuckled. "I've never actually participating in anything big like this, so I am hoping I could at least make worth of it."

"I hope so, for me too of course." Yao nodded.

Josh and Yao and a bunch of other people could see the bleachers all polished and the arena down below, currently a big massive rug that was on some floor.

"I don't think this will take too long of waiting." Yao said as he and Josh managed to find a seat down at the very front.

A few seconds later, Yao and Josh could see Juno and what looked like to be another girl sitting by a bunch of other bandits and other girls near the second row. Girls that Josh didn't even recognize!

"Listen closely." Yao said to Josh. "Though this is my third time hearing this, you might want to listen. It is rather very important."

"Oh, I hear you." Josh said his heart racing.

Within a few more minutes, with about eighty percent of the bleachers nearly filled up, spotlights above all of a sudden grew dark, and then aimed down towards the ground, following what looked like to be a man wearing a black suit.

"Wow." Josh could hardly contain himself, but he did.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to Repentance Ravine! For some of you, this may be your second, third, fourth, fifth, or even tenth year, if you are a very persistent person." The man said, as he was speaking into a microphone in the center of the arena.

There was a bunch of chuckles from the ground.

"But look no further. You've come to the right place to clear your name. By fighting, oh, what is the best other way to clear your name right?"

A bunch of cheers came from the crowd too.

"So let's get started, and like the announcement states, this will be brief. The fighting season is always so ripe here at Repentance Ravine isn't it? Ready to be broadcasted?"

"Broadcasted?" Josh whispered.

"Oh yeah, forgot to tell you." Yao chuckled quietly. "Every fight down at the arena is recorded by those camerapersons up there using their high tech cameras. Pretty cool huh."

"More of embarrassing." Josh whimpered. "Oh no. What did I just bring myself into?

 **It has been over a month with an update! I am very sorry, but I hope you can be sure that I am trying my best to make use of my time. But I hope you can still have the power to know that I will update, it's just at a pace. Hopefully I can quicken it up more.**


	16. Conversations Before Cafeteria

Chapter 15: Conversations Before Cafeteria

"As you may know, there are a lot of people competing. Surprisingly, there is actually a lot since the last season. But does it even matter? Well, for some of you, yes. But for some of you, no." The man continued.

"What happens if there are little or too much players in the tournament brackets?" Josh asked quietly to Yao. Yao just gestured his right hand forward.

"And what happens if there is a little or too much players in the tournament brackets you ask?" The man said, looking around at the crowd completely looking away from Josh. "It's very easy! As our motto goes, the fighting season is always ripe, sometimes there will be not just one verses one. Maybe One Verses One Verses One. Or even One Verses One Verses One Verses One Verses One."

The man then looked onwards at the crowd. "I think you all get the point. There can be multiple combatants competing at the same time."

Josh took a deep breath. What would be the chances of that ever happening?

"Now don't worry. We have matchmaking experts who determine your strength and weakness, so you can be sure that there will be a fair fight." The man smirked. "Though sometimes there may be a few exceptions."

Josh forced himself to not freak out. But he really couldn't believe that was a possibility!

"And so, as I look out at the crowd at all you determined people with a chance to win the grand prize, I can see some really good combatants who are going to be strong out in the early fields! If you steal something, Repentance Ravine will pay for whatever you steal if you win. If you hurt or injured someone real bad that it gets reported to authorities, you can clear your name! There is a variety of prizes that can come out of winning."

With that, a couple of chatters could be heard throughout the whole stadium.

"So remember everyone, only the best of the best can be the top! We'll start airing this season's first fight tomorrow! In the meantime, lunch will be served about an hour from now or so, and following that, you can explore the place for a while. Thank you!"

With that, the crowd started cheering and clapping as the man smirked before taking the microphone and casually walked off back and disappeared from one of the doors that looked like the entrance to the arena floors.

"I just want you to know," Yao said as the regular ceiling lights started to flicker back on to normal and then the spotlights started to grow dim before the regular lights replaced it,.

"Yeah?" Josh asked. What could possibly be even worse?

"The food here is nothing like you've ever tasted." Yao smirked.

"Really? That's good to know! I could really use at least some good news about this place!" Josh exclaimed.

Yao could only smile at the reply.

A few minutes later, Josh and Yao finally arrived back at their dorm.

"Just in case you were wondering Josh, the top part of the bunk bed is where I bunk, the bottom is all yours." Yao said.

"Aw, really? Why do I always get the one closest to the floor?" Josh sarcastically whined.

Yao could only chuckle in reply as he opened the door.

Josh went over to the bunk bed and sat on him, feeling all of the hardness of the mattress.

"All these dorms are pretty low-quality like don't you think?" Josh said.

"Don't blame Loser Arena." Yao said as he leaned his back up against the wall nearby opposite of the bunk bed. "I'm sure all of the low-quality pays off for the high-quality price."

"Don't you kinda think it's unfair for the others who'd lose?" Josh said. "I mean they'd go here and have to deal with all of this low-quality stuff for weeks, and then lose."

"That's why it's a bit of a gamble here." Yao replied back. "You are risking a lot of time for big prizes."

"What kinds of prizes are there anyways?" Josh asked. Josh was sure that he paid attention to the opening orientation, but he was still confused with all the prizes.

"The prizes pretty much vary on the reason why you came here to clear your name." Yao said. "For example, if I came here right after I stole gold, which I'd never do, then Repentance Ravine would help cover the cost up."

Josh nodded. "That's exactly what my ally is here for."

"Unfortunately I did not come with any allies." Yao said. "I'm on this alone, just wanted you to know since you are my dormmate for a few weeks."

"Isn't bringing an ally with you kind of unfair to the other people that don't bring any allies here?" Josh asked.

"Nope, not at all." Yao said. "Although the maximum is two allies you can bring, the prizes usually get smaller the more allies you have. Although that's why you and your ally get to split-whatever."

"Well my ally is probably getting most of the prize. Not to brag or anything, but I decided on clearing my own name myself. I took out a whole bunch of Executioners!" Josh couldn't help but smirk a bit.

"You took out a bunch of Executioners?" Yao said. "How did that happen?"

"I honestly don't know!" Josh said. "I just remembered how my brother Jack fights and then it just took off from there. Like some kind of force or spirit inside of me is like pushing me forward… nah, what was I thinking? That couldn't happen right?"

"Are you sure you took out a bunch of Executioners?" Yao said. "On your own?"

"Okay, maybe I shouldn't boast myself or anything, but yeah, I did." Josh replied back.

"Huh…" Yao slid his right hand down the punching bag. "That must've been pretty cool to watch."

"Yeah, and the ironic thing was that I was that…" Josh began, but then quickly stopped abruptly. "Okay, maybe I'm kind of getting too personal."

Yao landed a couple of punches on the punching bag. "It's okay, I'm fine."

"Thanks." Josh said as he scooted backwards on the bed and rested his back up against the wall. "You seem pretty easy-going."

"I try to be. One time I caused a fight out of my own anger, and I grounded from privileges in my dad's training grounds."

"What kinds of privileges do you mean by that?" Josh asked.

"I mean like reserved punching bags and targets, and individual practice cliffs."

"Practice cliffs?" Josh asked.

"Yeah. My dad has a big cliff like pillar with climbing rocks which are to help with your upper body strength. There are two spots per side of the pillar, which makes it a total of eight spots for using the cliff pillar. There is this line that separate the cliff half each side so you can't take up too much climbing space, but with individual practice cliffs, you can actually take up a whole side."

"Wow! If there aren't any people…" Josh began.

"Then you can use the whole cliff pillar if you want!" Josh concluded.

"That's right!" Yao said.

Josh thought for a moment, before deciding.

"Actually, I feel like I could say what was ironic about me taking out the Executioners." Josh began to say. He didn't know what was in his mind as he was saying it. He was going nuts!

"You sure? You already said that it was intimate." Yao leaned his back up against the wall after he stopped punching.

"Yeah I know, but…" Josh sighed. "I feel like I just want to get it out there."

"If that's what you want, it's fine with me." Yao nodded. "I'm listening."

"Well, actually, I took out the bunch of executioners because…" Josh started, but then frowned.

"Because…"

Yao looked curiously at Josh.

"Because-I-was-trying-to-save-a-girl-from-being-torture." Josh said very quickly, his cheeks turning bright pink.

"Wait…what? Whoa man, you gotta speak more slowly!" Yao said.

"Speak more slowly?" Josh stuttered.

"Listen man, if you are uncomfortable telling me, that's okay! You don't need to dive into sensitive matters." Yao said, clearly concerned.

"Thanks." Josh said. "But I really want to get it out of me. I just hate that feeling whenever you really need to release some of your personal matters out."

"I get that feeling all the time." Yao said. "But it's perfectly fine with me if you don't get too personal."

"Uh…okay." Josh said, regaining a bit of his confidence back. "I was… trying to save… someone."

Yao was about to respond, but then Josh quickly said the last two words of his apparently unfinished sentence.

"A girl."

"Wait, what?" Yao blinked.

"Yeah…" Josh awkwardly said slowly.

All of a sudden, Yao smirked.

"Ohhh, a girl!" Yao said. "Man, you must've been feeling like pretty hot stuff when you were doing that."

"I mean, it took place underwater at some point."

"Underwater?" Yao was still smirking. "What do you mean by that?"

All of a sudden, Josh could literally feel himself spilling out all of the information that was supposedly personal to him.

"The girl I was rescuing was tied up to a rope that was tied up to this wooden plank. The plank was hanging above the water, and while I was kicking butt out there, one of those Executioners quickly cut off the rope that the girl was tied up too, and the girl plunged head-first into the water since she was tied up upside-down."

Josh coughed, knowing that he may have talked a bit too much at one time.

"Well, that seems pretty hard to believe don't you think?" Yao said, as he raised an eyebrow.

"I know it is, and I wish I could give you some proof." Josh replied back.

A few minutes later, Josh and Yao heard the intercom speaker come alive again.

"Attention combatants of Repentance Ravine, the cafeteria is now serving lunch at this time. All combatants are welcomed to come dine at this time."

With that, the intercom stopped, and Josh stood up from the bed.

"You said the food was nothing like I've ever tasted?" Josh asked.

"Oh yeah." Yao smirked. "Just wait and see."

Josh and Yao finished heading down the corridor a few seconds later, with Yao leading the way, until they finally reached the big door of the cafeteria. Once Josh got it, his eyes widened.

"Whooooa!" Josh said.

The room was massive, built with marble porcelain like structure, and had big long tables that had circular like chairs. Of course, you can't expect everything to be high quality even in the places where you actually need to go, so Josh could definitely see a couple of stains on the floors from food, and a bunch of other messy splatters.

"Let's go get some food before the line piles up." Yao nudged Josh. "If you want to learn something about me, it's that I don't like traffic."

"Neither do I." Josh chuckled as he followed.

There was another tunnel that led inside the area where you'd get your food, and Josh could see a bunch of trays stacked up, ready grab from.

"It's like a buffet!" Josh exclaimed.

"Yeah." Yao said as he took a tray. Josh did the same.

The "lunch ladies" wore green aprons, white hats, and looked like they weren't enjoying their job here at ALL.

"Whatddayah want?" said one of the ladies when it was Yao's turn to enter the salad bar portion of the table. Josh noticed that there were these miniature glass roofs over the food in containers below so the combatants can see what they want.

"Cherry Tomatoes… and some purple carrots."

"Yeah, sure." The lady said glumly with barely any enthusiasm in her voice tone. Just bland.

The lady picked up a ladle for vegetables and scooped the Cherry Tomatoes from the container filled with Cherry Tomatoes, and the Purple Carrots from the container filled with carrots full of different colors. Yao didn't mind when he noticed that the lunch lay carelessly added in eight regular orange carrots in.

"Let's see. Maybe some Persimmon and Blueberries." Josh said when it was his turn.

"Whatever." The lunch lady said back.

Josh was about to angry retaliate back and start giving the lunch lady a lecture for how rude they treat the combatants at Repentance Ravine, but Yao quickly stopped him.

"Don't worry. They always act like that." Yao said.

"But…why?" Josh asked.

After Yao and Josh got their food, they left the tunnel and sat down at a random table that seemed pretty empty, except that it was filled by a few teenagers about fourteen or fifteen years old at the other end of the table.

Josh had roasted chicken, persimmon, blueberries, and lettuce on his ray. Yao had a hotdog that was filled with chili, cherry tomatoes, purple carrots, and slices of bell peppers in his tray.

Josh noticed a few other people walking around with jugs that were filled with each a different color, which probably explained why he and Yao received empty cups with their tray.

"When you find a drink you want, just ask." Yao said.

"How are we supposed to know what they are and what they taste like, all from just color?" Josh asked in disbelief.

Yao smiled.

Josh cut out a small piece of the roasted chicken and shoved it in his mouth, before spitting it out.

"Pwah! What is this?!" Josh exclaimed in disbelief. "This does not taste like chicken!"

"Like I said." Yao smirked. "The food is nothing like you ever tasted."

"You got that right." Josh said as he looked towards the end of the table, nearly dropping his fork at what he saw.

The teenagers were all girls but…

Juno was with them.

 **I certainly should apologize for taking quite the time to make such a very short chapter. But hopefully you can bear with me as I try to make these chapters the best quality they are to be! Enjoy the upcoming chapters!**


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